July 11, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 25, 1428

ISLAMABAD, July 10: Pakistan is eying to increase export of those commodities which enjoy duty concessions to United States under the generalised system of preference (GSP).

An official in the commerce ministry told Dawn that in the recent review of the GSP scheme products of many developing countries particularly of India and Brazil had been graduated out of this scheme, which would give more leverage to Pakistani products in grabbing market access.

The United States has terminated some trade benefits for India, Brazil and other developing countries under the GSP programme that provided duty-free access for $32.6 billion worth of goods from developing countries in 2006.

Pakistan exported $4.391 million worth goods to United Stated in 2006 under the GSP scheme. Of these included dates, fresh or dried, whole, without pits, hides and skins of goat and tanned buffalo leather etc.

In December 2006, the US Congress had approved a bill that provided new guidelines for determining whether a particular product was eligible for duty-free treatment under the GSP programme. It was aimed at eliminating GSP eligibility for products where developing countries had shown they could compete without assistance.

According to the official, the commerce ministry had not conducted any research so far about the implication of the graduation of the commodities of these countries on Pakistani exports. However, he said that certainly Pakistani products of these categories would get preferential access to the US market as compared to other countries.