January 8, 2003	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 4, 1423

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BRUSSELS, Jan 7: Pakistan’s new Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan is set to meet European Union trade commissioner Pascal Lamy in Brussels this week in an effort to revitalise EU-Pakistan trade ties.

Pakistan’s trade chief faces tough discussions. After a post-September 11 boost to bilateral links, relations between Islamabad and Brussels soured late last year after an EU election monitoring mission identified “serious flaws” in the October national elections.

The fall-out from the EU’s political disenchantment with Pakistan has also affected the two sides normally trouble-free trade relations, with the European Commission only accepting Pakistan’s calls for a flexible implementation of textile quotas after weeks of negotiation and Islamabad also currently facing a new investigation into charges that Pakistani companies have been dumping bed linen on EU markets.

The EU has also made no secret of its anger at a decision by PIA to buy Boeing aircraft instead of Europe’s Airbus planes.

Putting the fraught trade relationship back on a more vibrant track will require hard work and skilled diplomacy by Islamabad’s new leaders.

The election monitors’ less-than-complimentary assessment of the Pakistani elections has put a pall on prospects for an early approval of a new EU-Pakistan agreement by the European Parliament.

Meanwhile, many EU nations such as Spain, Portugal and Italy have also questioned a multi-million dollar package of textile concessions agreed for Pakistan by EU governments in late-2000.

The deal was a gesture of European support for Islamabad following President Musharraf’s decision to back the international campaign against terrorism.

EU trade concessions are unlikely to be revoked but EU insiders admit that several governments in the bloc are also angry at PIA’s decision to purchase America’s Boeing aircraft instead of Airbus.