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India not to oppose EU's Pak trade package at WTO

By Josy Joseph
Updated Tuesday, 16 August 2011 12:08:08 - IST (UTC +5:30)

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister yet again made a personal intervention to extend a significant unilateral concession to Pakistan, just a few days ahead of Independence Day.
Senior sources said PM Manmohan Singh has ordered officials to withdraw India's official opposition at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to a concessional trade package offered by the European Union to Pakistan.
According to sources, the decision to reverse India's year-old stand was at the behest of Singh, and came after more than half-a-dozen meetings of WTO general council where India opposed the trade package. They said Singh's order would be implemented soon.
India, supported by Bangladesh and Peru, mounted an opposition in the WTO to the package, challenging the unprecedented EU move. They also raised doubts if the concessions would at all benefit the flood affected people of Pakistan. If India withdraws its opposition, the other two will fall in line, giving WTO approval to the unprecedented package.
In the wake of last year's devastating floods in Pakistan, EU made the offer, which has had no precedent, to provide a concessional trade package to the textile industry of Pakistan. India led the challenge to the package in WTO.
When Pakistani foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar was in India recently, she raised the issue of Indian objections with authorities here. At the commerce secretary-level meetings, the issue has been figuring prominently. It is also expected to figure among the key agenda when the commerce ministers of both sides meet in Delhi next month.
The Indian stand was prompted by principles of free trade, and not any bilateral adversity, officials insisted. The barter of trade concessions for aid violates principles of free international trade, and sets dangerous precedents, India had argued in at least six rounds of WTO meetings. India said if EU wanted to provide aid to Pakistan, it was more than welcome to do it directly but not through trade diversion couched as trade concession.
EU made the unilateral tariff concessions to Pakistan at its summit in September 2010 for export of some 75 items. The year-long concession was expected to give Pakistan a gain of about $300 million, in terms of increase in exports of finished textile products, cotton, ethanol etc. The decision was prompted by assessments that showed that the floods reduced Pakistan's GDP by about 2% in the 2010-11 financial year.
However, sources said Singh's personal gesture will not go much beyond this for the time being. A senior official said they were still watching the progress made in investigations into the 26/11 case in Pakistan, cross-border terrorism and other factors of bilateral ties. For now, there would be a very cautionary approach, other than the reversal of the WTO stand, until the end of this summer, they said. (TNN)

Tags: Josy Joseph India, Pakistan, EU trade package, WTO,

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