Pakistan would continue to benefit from the UK’s trade preferences scheme at par with the EU GSP Plus facility after the Brexit.
On Monday, Pakistan High Commissioner in the United Kingdom, Moazzam Ahmad Khan has said that Pakistan would continue to benefit from the UK trade preference scheme. He said that given the potential of the UK market, products like pharmaceutical, healthcare PPE, surgical instruments, IT-enabled services, processed food, and agriculture products possess immense potential.
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He assured all possible assistance and facilities from the commission to the Pakistan business community in their marketing efforts. The UK-GSP scheme will come into force from January 1, 2021, upon the expiry of the Brexit transition period on December 31, 2020.
A part of the UK-GSP schemas applicable to exports from Pakistan is: Pakistan has been placed in the “Enhanced Framework “which is the same as the GSP plus category of the EU-GSP scheme.
Accordingly, under the UK-GSP scheme, Pakistan will be eligible for the same level of market access (Preferential tariffs) for exports to the UK as are available to it under the GSP plus scheme of the European Union.
Pakistan after Brexit will be subjected to the same eligibility criteria and trade obligations as applicable to it under the GSP plus scheme of European Union visa vis the vulnerability criteria and compliance of 27 international conventions.
This is only a part of the information with reference to the UK-GSP scheme, derived from the UK Government’s guidance document “details on UK’s Generalized Scheme of Preference(GSP)” available at https:/www.gov.uk/transition.
The high commissioner of Pakistan in the United Kingdom highlighted the significance of the UK market for Pakistan and said that the duty-free access to Pakistan on more than 90% of Pakistan’s products was a good omen for the future UK-Pakistan trade and investment relations.
To make effective utilization of the concessions available to Pakistan and increase its market share post-Brexit, the High Commissioner underlined the need for a comprehensive strategy and effective public-private cooperation to leverage this potential.
