The European Union (EU) is likely to offer additional market access to Pakistan to help strengthen its economy. At the same time, it has also “no” plans to impose anti-dumpling duty on bed linen as was being apprehended in business quarters.
A four-day visit to the EU headquarters, Brussels, last week made one realise that the EU officials continue to be helpful despite their reservations over October general elections in Pakistan.
Primarily, the visit was organised for journalists from 12 countries to attend a conference: “One Year After Doha’, reporting on the challenges facing the European Union and the developing world.”
However, the detailed interaction with the EU representatives revealed that Pakistan’s continued support for war against terrorism, will help the new government to have all possible support including additional market access which is currently being assessed. Earlier, the EU had offered additional over $300 million market access last year.
“Pakistan is our important trade partner and we would certainly want to enhance cooperation with the new government”, said EU’s Director General Trade Pascal Lamy. Mr. Lamy who is considered very influential in the Union’s hierarchy also ruled out the possibility of imposing anti-dumping duty on bed lenin.
Nevertheless, he was very much concerned about strained relations between India and Pakistan and regretted that both the countries were using their resources for increasing their defence capabilities rather than caring about their poor people.
But overall the impression of the visiting journalists was that the EU was more concerned about its expansion plans to offer more facilities to the people of Europe rather than extending concrete support to the developing countries or for that matter least developing countries. At the same time one could feel that after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the EU has, directly or indirectly, started opposing the United States on various issues. For example, the EU is just unprepared to listen to the US government that within next 15 years time all trade bearers and protections should go including in the developing countries. At the same time EU is opposing US on environmental issues. “Now when there is no threat to the security of Europe, it sounds little unreasonable to continue towing the US line on every matter”, said an EU official privately. He was of the view that economic matters should get preference on security issues as there is no real threat to the Europe’s security now.
Director General Trade Representative Olivier de Larousilhe, has been sounding very positive to have better EU trade relations with developing countries. He was of the view that if some thing convincing is presented, it is always supported and approved by the EU authorities and that,” we are all there to make sure that justice is done with every country”.
The journalists were also told that those countries which have a good track record for human rights and were considered functioning democracies would naturally get preferential treatment by the EU.
One also finds stress on human development specially in the developing and least developing countries. The EU officials have been referring to the latest Human Development Report which indicates that the world’s richest 20 per cent account for 86 per cent of world GDP, 82 percent of exports, 68 percent of FDI and 93 percent of Internet users. Of the 175 countries ranked in the first 30-40 are the prosperous, democratic, developed countries, in Europe, North America, Japan and Australia, joined by several others such as Israel and Singapore and probably Chile. They belong to the group of 64 countries which are described as having ‘high human development’.
The next 60 listed countries are placed in the medium category. This group faces environmental, population, structural, and social challenges, but they also have some educational and infrastructual resources, plus considerable (if unpredictable) access to capital. These include small nations such as Costa Rica and Jamaica, but also large, populous countries such as India, Pakistan, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia. With China, they account for about 60 percent of the world’s population, and the future of the world will depend largely on how they overcome their current challenges.
At the lower end of the human development index, there are 51 chronically low-income countries, chiefly in Africa, but also in Asia and Central America; the poorest of the poor unable to rescue themselves and without private international capital inflows. They are now totally depended on aid to survive.
The EU aid including other funds are allocated in such a manner so that social infrastructure and services, including government and civil society, health and education, get 22 percent, economic infrastructure and services, including transport and storage, energy and communication, get 13 per cent, production sector, including agriculture forestry and fishing, industry, mining and construction and trade tourism, get 7 percent, multi-sector including general environmental protection and women development, get 8 percent, commodity aid and general programme assistance, including structural adjustment with World Bank/IMF and developmental food aid/food security, get 20 per cent, action relating to debt gets 12 percent, and emergency assistance, including emergency food aid, gets 11 percent. These are geographically allocated 52 percent to the 77 countries of ACP, 13 percent to the countries of Mediterranean and Middle East; 8 per cent to Asia, 4 percent to Latin America, 11 percent to the Balkans, 7 percent to the ex-Soviet countries, and 5 per cent to multi-regional areas.
Generally, the EU officials maintain that they are trying to have increased cooperation with the developing countries and that this perception is not correct that EU is just trying to help its own countries. They say that the EU is the world’s leading trading bloc, with 20 percent of world trade in goods and services, the world’s leading exporters of goods: Euro 760 billion in 1999, almost 19 percent of the world total; the world’s leading exporter of services: Euro 240 billion in 1999, with 26 percent of the world total; and the world’s leading source of foreign direct investment (Euro 298 billion in 1999).
Developing countries account for 42 percent of EU imports, a total of Euro 432 billion in 2000; their value of share growing faster than that of developed countries, rising by 15 percent a year since 1995 and doubling over a ten-year period. In 1999, the EU was the world’s biggest importer of goods from Least Developing Countries, with 55 percent of LDC exports coming into EU with 97 percent of these imports free of duties.
