EU seeks India waiver for duty-free imports from Pakistan

摘要

The European Union has sought India's support for its proposal to give Pakistan duty-free access to a number of goods into the European market as part of the its flood relief package, a demand that has not gone down with the trade and textiles ministries. "So many countries, including India, are hit by calamities all through the year. We don't see such packages for them," a commerce department official said but indicated that a final call on the issue is yet to be taken. If implemented, the package could give a big blow to India's textile exports, as more than 64 items of the identified 75 products, belong to the textile category. Since the sops would go against the most favoured nation treatment clause of the World Trade Organization, which lays down that all countries have to be treated the same, the EU has to obtain a waiver.