The earth quakes of 2005 and 2008 as well as the floods of 2009 and 2010 shattered the economy of the country .To overcome the economic fall because of the disasters, the political leadership launched an initiative, the Friends of Democratic Pakistan.
The FODP initiative could not fetch a respectable level of relief to the country in the grip of internal and external difficulties. The elected government had inherited a plethora of problems from the military regime of Pervez Musharraf .The legacy of Musharraf was compounded by unprecedented floods and major tremors.
Against this bleak background, Pakistan took its case to the European Union, which has been our major trading partner .The EU took up the challenge in right earnest. The government of Pakistan placed trade above aid .This paradigm shift from aid to trade attracted the interest of our trading partners. Negotiations with the EU started in the fourth quarter of 2010 and continued up to January 2012. The tedious process of negotiations passed though numerous ups and downs.
The World Trade Organisation approved a European Union proposal on February 1 this year to grant a waiver on duties for 75 Pakistani products to help it recover from the devastation caused by the 2010 floods. The waiver lowering duties and related trade barriers is unprecedented in the history of WTO because it does not set a precedent for a similar facility to other members of the premier world trade body. Pakistani products benefiting from this facility include textiles, leather products, industrial alcohol and vegetables among others. Such a huge preferential package is an urgently needed shot in the arm of the export industries. Intensive lobbying by our leadership and officials from ministries concerned led to the softening of attitudes of the competitors who subsequently gave up their resistance to the exception being granted to exports from our country.
The waiver will apply from January1 until December 31, 2013.The package has to be approved by the WTO General Council .The offer can be extended for a third year if the EU considers that Pakistani economy still needs support.
Besides extra earnings, the economic benefits of the package will provide manufactures an incentive to improve their export quality in a wide range of products .In a cutthroat and ruthless competition among exporters from around the world, Pakistani counterparts now face a daunting challenge to excel in performance and quality .While the WTO and the EU have given sympathetic consideration to the needs of the export industry the responsibility of our manufacturing sector has increased manifold.
