ISLAMABAD, Jan 7: The European Union (EU) is yet to ratify the bilateral cooperation agreement aimed at greater cooperation in economic and trade affairs, a senior official told Dawn on Tuesday.

The agreement was signed in 2001 by the representative of EU and Pakistan.

According to the official, the issue among others would be raised during the visit of commerce minister to Brussels.

The minister would also raise the issue of the facility of exceptional flexibility quota to Pakistani textile exporters, which has been frozen for the time being by the EU.

“It is binding on the EU to consider our request of allowing exceptional flexibility quota favourably,” said the official. The total exceptional flexibility quota for Pakistan in the textile sector is 4,000 tons.

The exceptional flexibility quota was frozen by the EU following their alleged reservation over the deals of national flag carrier, Pakistan International Airliners (PIA) of buying Boeing from the United States instead of buying Airbus from them.

The EU was of the opinion that it was only the EU who enhanced the textile quota by 15 per cent for Pakistani exporters, besides other facilities, to bridge the gap occurred following the 9/11 incident.

Official statistics made available to Dawn showed Pakistan exports to EU member countries stood at $2.503 billion during the financial year 2001-02 against $2.420 billion over the corresponding year of 2000-01, showing an increase of 3.42 per cent.

The EU member countries total exports to Pakistan stood at $1.752 billion during the year 2001-02 against $1.589 billion over the corresponding year, showing an increase of 10.25 per cent.