Pakistan’s Textile and Clothing Exporters May Gain Duty-Free Access to EU Markets

On May 10, 2011, the European Commission announced a proposal which could provide Pakistan—the fifth biggest supplier of textiles and clothing to the EU market—with duty-free access to EU markets under the EU’s Generalised System of Preference (GSP) scheme. This has met with opposition from Euratex (the European Apparel and Textile Confederation) and from competing developing countries such as India. In this report, Robin Anson looks at how this proposal, if passed, could affect the textile and clothing industries in other countries which supply the EU.