EU to decide on Pakistan's GSP+ status beyond 2023 after review; NGOs, academics critical of compliances

Brussels [Belgium], April 13 : The European Union's GSP+ (Generalised Scheme of Preferences - 'GSP+') status of Pakistan is under review for the period beginning 2024 and the country's NGOs, academics, trade unions and civil-society groups continue to be critical of compliances on even very basic principles on which the GSP+ status has been granted by the EU.
Despite the lack of compliance, the EU has not suspended the GSP+ scheme and the related benefits, according to an article in Geopolitica.info.
Valerio Fabbri said the GSP+ scheme is supposed to incentivize social and environmental conditions to support Islamabad's efforts of uplifting the poor. The EU consistently monitors compliance by focusing on the situation of bonded labour and the protection of children and women's rights in Pakistan.
The article said that benefits of GSP+ status to Pakistan were pocketed by the business elite and feudal landlords (zamindars), without any improvement in labour working conditions or wage increases.
The European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS) recently conducted an assessment of the EU's GSP+ status in different sectors of the Pakistani economy and found that working conditions and the protection of children and women's rights had not improved much in Pakistan. Furthermore, the landlords also charge rent from the workers and their families who stay in their properties in spite of meagre salaries. According to some reports, the elite even siphoned the benefits of the scheme to offshore bank accounts.
The EIAS report was published in a concept note titled "Addressing the EU's GSP+ Dilemma - An assessment of Pakistan's GSP+ status".
Under the EU's GSP+, Pakistan benefited mainly through exports of clothing and textiles to the EU market and 78 per cent of Pakistan's exports enter the EU market at preferential rates.
The report found that bonded labour arrangements (debt slavery) continue to be widespread in Pakistan, especially in rural areas, denying workers even opportunities for education and employment.
Despite the EU extending GSP+ benefits, they were 'trapped in a downward spiral of rising debt, and an estimated 3 million people in Pakistan effectively live as indentured servants,' stated the assessment report.
Even in urban manufacturing centres like Sialkot, where about 70 per cent of global football manufacturing takes place, many workers still earn below the standard minimum wage, said Fabbri.
According to the workers' rights group Labour Qaumi Movement, so far barely 10 per cent of the workforce have actually received social security cards, even though the GSP+ conditionalities require all workers to receive them.
Women and children are part of the most vulnerable groups in Pakistan and are often being exploited and subjected to human trafficking. They are also forced to work under inhumane and bonded labour conditions and face a great risk of sexual violence. There are currently over 2 million child labourers in Pakistan, reported Geopolitica.info.
The EU report noted that law enforcement remains very weak, particularly outside densely populated Punjab province. Although a great number of laws and regulations already exist or have been introduced, they have not been implemented, let alone enforced.
"These observations gain significance as the GSP+ scheme is currently under review for 2024-2034, since the current one expires at the end of next year," the report said.
Despite claims made by Islamabad on the progress in implementing the laws related to human rights, EU delegations found it otherwise during their various field visits, said Fabbri.
In the unskilled, labour-intensive industries such as leather, carpet, aquaculture and food-processing, construction and kilns industries, workers faced increased vulnerability.
According to the Pakistan Workers Confederation (PWC), the country is in a "state of near non-implementation" with regard to many of the International Labour Organization (ILO)'s core labour conventions. Pakistan has yet to ratify, inter alia, the ILO's 1970 Minimum Wage Fixing Convention.
The country's NGOs, academics, trade unions and civil-society groups continue to be critical of compliances on even very basic principles on which the GSP+ status has been granted by the EU.