LAHORE: As a result of GSP Plus and duty free access, Pakistan’s exports to the European Union (EU) have increased from $6.21 billion during 2013 to $7.54 billion in 2014. Pakistan’s export to EU registered an increase of $1.32 billion in one year. This represents an increase of 21 percent, according to official sources in the Ministry of Commerce.
Many sectors, including textiles, which was facing a custom tariff from 6.4 percent to 12 percent, leather up to 6 percent and footwear up to 6 percent etc have now duty free access in the EU. This has helped Pakistani products to become more competitive vis-a-vis its competitors.
Hence, Pakistan’s exports EU have grown more rapidly in 2014 than many of its regional competitors including Bangladesh, India and Vietnam.
However, it is important to note that as a result of existing financial crisis in EU, value of euro is depreciating vis-a-vis the US dollar and hence export earnings of all the countries have been impacted adversely.
The Pakistani exports grew by 9.42 percent for the period January-October, 2015 as compared to the same period in 2014 in terms of euro.
