SIALKOT: Senior experts of Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) have sensitized the Sialkot exporters about the complete implementation on European Union’s GSP Rules for promoting their exports under the Registered Exporter System (REX) to the European Union (EU) countries.
Addressing the participants of an awareness-raising seminar, the senior TDAP experts educated the Sialkot exporters on the one of the most significant subjects of Registered Exporter System (REX). They said that exporters would be able managing their export matters with the EU in an enlightened manner, besides, building and enhancing the capacity of the Sialkot exporters.
The participants were told that TDAP has been playing its active role in implementation of EU-GSP Rules since 2014 and supporting the Export Sector of Pakistan in exploiting the opportunity to its maximum.
TDAP officials added that Pakistan re-affirms its relations with the European Union as the most important trading partner. Thanks to GSP+ more than 78% of Pakistan’s exports enter the EU at most concessional rates.
They added that today, European Union (EU) was one of Pakistan’s largest trading partners and the biggest market for Pakistani exports with total EU-Pakistan trade reaching €12.53 billion in 2018.
Since the awarding GSP+ Status, exports from Pakistan to EU increased from €4.53 billion in 2013 to €6.9 billion in 2018 with a cumulative growth of staggering 52.31% in 5 years.
It is worth mentioning here that before getting the GSP+ status, the exports of Pakistan to EU had faced a dip of -11.4% in the year 2012.
On this occasion, SCCI SVP Khurram Azeem Khan said that currently, Pakistan is the 43rd largest Trading partner of the EU and I am proud in sharing that the Industry of Sialkot has also benefitted greatly from the GSP+ scheme with some of our worthy members are reported to have increased their individual exports over 50 to 70%, the senior TDAP experts revealed.
SCCI SVP added that in Pakistan, the GSP+ status is also being utilized to the maximum through the Registered Exporter System (REX System) launched by EU in 2017 which has greatly facilitated the business community in terms of quick documentation.
Pakistan’s exports to the EU are dominated by textiles and clothing as well as leather products while Pakistan’s imports from the EU mainly comprise mechanical and electrical machinery as well as chemical and pharmaceutical products. However, there was immense scope for other Made in Pakistan goods especially the quality sectors of Sialkot including the Surgical Instruments, Sports Goods, Gloves, Musical Instruments and others that can immensely benefit from the facility if provided with an enabling environment, SCCI SVP Khurram Azeem Khan told the participants.