The ministry's team worked day and night to complete the application in consultation with the trade minister in Brussels. The Commerce Ministry also held a number of meetings with the stakeholders with regarding to compliance of 27 Conventions signed with the international community.
"We expect the process to take up to six months in the Commission. If the conditions are met, the Commission will make a proposal to grant GSP plus. Then the Council and the European Parliament have two months (which can be extended by another two) to object. A qualified majority of member states or simple majority in the European Parliament can block the proposal," he added.
Analysts are of the view that Pakistan has to work hard to get GSP plus status as the EU will not automatically grant the scheme subsequent to filing of an application and Islamabad would have to fight its case both at technical, political and diplomatic levels.
The regulations provide that Pakistan along with other eligible countries for GSP plus apply for this dispensation. The regulations, however, are silent about the processing of such an application. Pakistan had announced that it would file an application with the EU during the first week of current month but officially there has been no word from the Commerce Ministry so far. "Schedule of the process depends on the quality of the file: the more complete and exhaustive it is the smoother will be the processing.
But the entry is not automatic: the criteria will have to be met scrupulously," said an official on condition of anonymity. GSP Regulations require a beneficiary country to avail GSP+ dispensation, by making the following commitments: (i) 27 Conventions are to be ratified without reservations of a nature which are prohibited by any of the conventions or which are construed to be incompatible with the objective and purpose of that convention; (ii) the country is required to be seen as implementing the provisions of all the conventions, co-operating with the monitoring mechanism provided in each Convention;(iii) a binding undertaking is provided to the Commission to maintain ratification of the relevant conventions and to ensure the effective implementation thereafter; and (iv) the country accepts without reservations the reporting requirement imposed by each convention and gives a binding undertaking to accept regular monitoring and review of its implementation record in accordance with the provisions of the relevant conventions. There are other provisions in various other Articles of the legislation. Such provisions include the possibility of temporary withdrawal of the GSP plus dispensation in case the Commission concludes in its review that the country is lagging behind in effective implementation of the relevant conventions.
In that review, the conclusions and recommendations of the relevant monitoring bodies and other sources including information submitted by third parties, civil society, social partners, European Parliament or the Council will be taken into account. All the required Conventions have been ratified by Pakistan with reservations except Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), with no reservations. The provisions of Article 9 of the EU requirement is that all the relevant agreements in the legislation may be ratified without formulating a reservation prohibited by any of those conventions or reservations which are incompatible with the objective and purpose of that Convention.