Committee warns GSP+ access at risk

Pakistan’s preferential access to the European Union could be at risk over human-rights concerns, National Assembly Finance Committee Chairman Syed Naveed Qamar said on Tuesday, according to The Express Tribune. The government, however, told lawmakers it did not see a threat to the country’s GSP+ status.

The EU scheme is scheduled to run through December 2028, while a government committee is preparing an application for the next programme, due to start in January 2029. Pakistan exported €7.5 billion to the EU under preferential terms in 2024, but the bloc’s monitoring report cited compliance problems during 2023-2025 and called for action on issues including enforced disappearances and freedom of expression.

The committee also criticised the latest fixed-tax initiative for traders: 222 joined, far below the government’s stated hope of one million. The programme ended on October 31, and the government said it was preparing enforcement measures, subject to approval by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.