Trade Ties Key to Pakistan’s Relationship with EU: Commerce Minister

GSP Plus has been a mutually beneficial undertaking that played an important part in the growth of Pakistan’s bilateral trade with the EU The Federal Minister for Commerce and Investment Syed Naveed Qamar on Monday met the Chair of the European Parliament’s committee for International Trade and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Bernd Lange in Brussels. The commerce minister underscored that trade and investment ties were key to Pakistan’s multifaceted relationship with the EU. The GSP Plus has been a mutually beneficial undertaking that played an important part in the growth of Pakistan’s bilateral trade with the EU countries, he added. He highlighted that economic stabilization and growth were the key priorities of the current government, particularly in the aftermath of the devastating floods. The EU remains a major partner for Pakistan to realize these objectives, he said. The minister emphasized that the GSP Plus was an excellent model for mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides, as Pakistan’s exports to the EU have increased by 86 percent. In contrast, the EU’s exports to Pakistan grew by 69 percent, since the inception of the scheme in 2014. He expressed the hope that the new GSP Plus regulation would continue to focus on its central tenets of supporting sustainable development, poverty alleviation, and good governance in the beneficiary countries. MEP Lange thanked the minister and agreed to work together in further strengthening Pakistan-EU relations, including enhanced exchanges. During his meeting with European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Janusz Wojciechowski, the minister stressed the importance of enhancing Pak-EU cooperation in the agriculture sector, especially for the modernization of agro-based industries, expansion of storage facilities, research, water management, food security, and flood protection. The meeting was attended by the Ambassador of Pakistan to Belgium, Luxembourg, and the European Union Dr. Asad Majeed Khan, and other officials. In a separate interaction, Qamar met the Standing Rapporteur of the Trade Monitoring Group for South Asia in the Committee on International Trade, MEP Maximilian Krah, and briefed the MEP about ways and means to strengthen Pak-EU trade and investment relations further. The Federal Minister for Commerce is visiting Brussels on a weeklong official visit from October 23 to 29, 2022.