GSP Plus can boost Pakistan's textile exports to EU

22 Jun '12

2 min read

Pakistan’s textile exports to the EU countries is likely to get a boost if the country manages to attain GSP Plus status by ratifying 27 human rights conventions before 2014.

Pakistan has become eligible to apply for EU’s GSP Plus status after the European Parliament approved draft legislation for the new GSP scheme last week.

For GSP Plus countries, the EU Parliament has fixed the upper limit at 13.5 percent per year for each individual category over exports registered in the previous year, to enjoy preferential treatment.

Assuming that Pakistan achieves the highest possible growth rate in textile exports that qualify for preferential treatment, the exports to EU may touch €1 billion by 2019, according to experts.

However, only those Pakistani textile items that have a share of less than two percent in EU’s total imports would qualify for zero-rated concessions to the EU under the GSP plus scheme.

Bed linen from Pakistan accounts for 27 percent of all bed linen imported by the EU. Similarly, Pakistan’s denim exports constitute 11 percent of all denim imported by the EU. So, bed linen and denim would not get preferential treatment and their exports would have to grow on their own strength.

But the GSP Plus status, if obtained, would give Pakistan a chance to promote those textile categories in the EU, which are currently not being substantially exported, such as the innerwear items.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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