LAHORE (May 22 2009): European Union (EU) is considering to broaden, widen and deepen its trade relations with Pakistan, when for the first time ever Pak-EU summit takes place on June 17 2009, in Brussels which will discuss the issue of trade with Islamabad. The European Union Ambassador to Pakistan, Jan De Kok stated this, while speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), here on Thursday.
The LCCI President Mian Muzaffar Ali, Senior Vice-President Tahir Javaid Malik, Vice-President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh and others also spoke on the occasion. The EU diplomat maintained that President Asif Ali Zardari will represent Islamabad in the Pak-EU summit while the EU would be represented by Czech Republic that holds the rotating Presidency of European Union at the moment.
Sweden, who is going to take charge of the EU Presidency on 1st July, is also likely to attend the meeting to ensure continuity of the policies. He said council of EU Foreign Ministers took the decision to hold the summit on 18th December last year because before December 18, trade policy regarding Pakistan was discussed at technocrat and bureaucratic levels. It was the council of Foreign Ministers of the European Union, which decided to take up the issue at political level that definitely would go a long way in expanding trade ties between the two sides.
The ambassador said, "It was a difficult process to win any favour for Pakistan but it is no more a secret that political will at the highest level is there in Europe". He said there were a number of manufacturing sectors in Europe which do not want any sort of FTA or GSP Plus status to Pakistan under the pretext that Pakistani manufacturers could be more competitive.
He said the European Union was among the largest trading partners of Pakistan and presently its 20 percent of exports were going to Europe and of that about 65 percent are textile and footwear. In European Union, trade is a common policy meaning thereby at policy level, it's the European Commission that deals with this issue and no individual state can speak on the issue of FTA individually.
In EU, there is a very huge recognition that we must try to broaden, widen and deepen our relationship with Pakistan, he added. Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI President Mian Muzaffar Ali sought European Union help for sustained development through more investment and trade. Pakistan has always viewed the EU as a key partner with sound opportunities for trade and investment. The presence of a remarkable number of Pakistanis in Europe gives added strength to the traditional relationship," he added.
The LCCI President reiterated the need for Free Trade Agreement between Pakistan and the European Union saying that by helping Pakistan in trade, the EU would actually be helping itself as well, as it has its own strategic interests in this region.
