The European Union and Mercosur states – Argentina, Brazil Paraguay and Uruguay, have reached a conclusion of negotiations for a comprehensive and ambitious Free Trade Agreement at the end of last month.
A group of Italian Senators have urged their Minister the Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Economic Development not to support Pakistan’s attempts to renew its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) plus status given to Pakistan in the European Union.
European Union (EU) granted GSP Plus status to Pakistan in 2013, which made Pakistani products duty-free in the European market.
Bangladesh has huge potential in home textiles but unable to expand its market share in the European Union because of duty benefits extended to Pakistan. In December 2013, the 28-nation bloc granted Pakistan the GSP Plus status for four years. The GSP Plus status allows 20 percent of Pakistani exports, including home textile, to enter the EU at zero duty and 70 percent at preferential rates.
Việtnamese textile and apparel sector has set a target of seven percent growth over 2016, with total export earnings of over $30 billion. It stands chance of achieving its export target this year despite facing many challenges in exporting to key markets, such as the European Union (EU) and the United States, according to experts.
Bangladesh has overtaken China to become the largest denim supplier to the European Union, on the other hand it has become the third largest denim supplier after China and Mexico to the US. Bangladesh exported €567.97 million worth of denim products to the 28-nation bloc -- enough to secure a 21.18 percent market share, the highest during the period January- June 2016.
Pakistan’s textile exports, the largest foreign exchange earning sector is facing a downward trend by 12.11 percent in the current year. Exports have declined to $8363 billion this year. Although the country is reaping the benefits of GSP, it has shown bleak performance in the export sector over which the Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders (ICST) on Sunday expressed deep concern and terming it unacceptable.
Textile industry leaders have urged the central government to get the Generalized System of Preference (GSP) from the European Union (EU) for inclusion of Indian textile products as Pakistan exporters are re-exporting the textile products imported directly or indirectly from country’s largest man-made fabric (MMF) hub Surat to EU due to its inclusion in the GSP in 2014, according to experts in the MMF sector.
Vietnamese enterprises expected to step up shipments to the U.S. and Japan with the tariff incentives offered by the TPP. Vietnam’s apparel is currently subject to 17-30% U.S. tariffs but the rates will be gradually brought down to 0% in the TPP.
The Swedish Embassy in Zimbabwe and Open Trade Gate Sweden (OTGS) together with Zim Trade to host a one day seminar on September 2 in Harare to raise awareness on the rules and requirements for exporting from Zimbabwe to Sweden as well as to the European Union.
The seminar will also provide requisite market intelligence to assist Zimbabwean companies with a potential to penetrate these markets.
Sri Lanka is likely to regain the GSP plus trade concession from European Union for garments exports, government said, five years after the nation lost the trade concession over its failure to meet the criteria on human rights concerns.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe gave assurance that Sri Lanka will regain the GSP plus trade concession from the European Union when he met local and foreign garment industry officials at Temple Trees yesterday. He said that no fresh conditions have been made. They have been working very closely with the EU.
