Dar chairs inter-ministerial meeting on exports and GSP+ use

ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar chaired an inter-ministerial meeting on Wednesday on ways of raising Pakistan's exports, and directed the ministries concerned to keep up the momentum on trade facilitation.

According to Business Recorder, the meeting focused on international trade and market access and took up human rights, labour rights and environmental governance in line with the country's international commitments: the conditions on which Pakistan's trade preferences abroad depend.

Dar, who holds the foreign affairs portfolio alongside the deputy premiership, called for stronger trade facilitation, an improvement in the quality of Pakistani products and expanded market access through what the report described as a full-spectrum utilisation of the European Union's GSP+ framework.

He reaffirmed the government's commitment to a coordinated, whole-of-government approach to boosting exports, the report said.

The meeting was attended by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Tariq Bajwa, the secretaries of foreign affairs, commerce and human rights, Pakistan's ambassador to Belgium and the European Union, and senior officials from the provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the ministries and departments concerned.

The presence of the human rights and foreign affairs secretaries alongside commerce officials reflects how Pakistan's eligibility for the EU's GSP+ scheme works: preferential tariff access rests on implementation of international conventions covering human rights, labour rights, environmental protection and good governance, so trade and rights obligations are handled in the same forum.

The account of the meeting issued on Wednesday did not give an export target, a timeline for any of the measures discussed, or a specific decision beyond the direction to the ministries to maintain momentum. No export figures were presented.

Pakistan's export performance and its GSP+ status have been recurring agenda items for the economic and foreign policy teams, with market access in Europe treated as a central component of the country's external trade strategy.