This week, a seven-member EU delegation is in Islamabad to review whether Pakistan still merits the benefits of GSP+, the preferential trade scheme that allows its exports to enter European markets under zero or reduced tariffs.
The outcome matters deeply for the export-dependent textile sector, the backbone of millions of livelihoods. Since 2014, when GSP+ was granted, our textile exports to the European Union have climbed 108%. And today, more than 85% of Pakistani exports to the EU use this preferential tariff structure.
But GSP+ is not a blank cheque. Its continuance is tied to the state’s track record on 27 core international agreements covering human rights, labour standards, environmental protections and governance. And this review will not only audit industrial output and shipment volumes. It will probe free expression, media independence, minority protections, labour and forced-labour laws, and how the country deals with unresolved cases like enforced disappearances. That matters. Not just for trade volumes, but because it strikes at the heart of our credibility.
On paper, Islamabad can point to a string of reforms. Labour laws have been updated, child marriage was raised to 18 in most provinces, and human rights commissions were reactivated across the land. Officials now argue that Pakistan meets the formal benchmarks required under GSP+. However, the ground story (as flagged by civil-society watchdogs and free-speech advocates) paints a different picture. Instances of censorship, arrests under cyber-speech laws, restrictions on dissent, allegations around disappearances and persistent complaints from minorities remain widespread. The EU mission briefing documents and recent commentary by human-rights institutions note “serious concerns.”
If the EU decides to suspend or revoke GSP+ privileges, the fallout would be swift and severe. Tariff benefits would vanish; production costs would rise; orders might cancel; factories might shut; jobs, especially in vulnerable textile hubs, would be threatened. Exporters already flag growing uncertainty.
Yet the larger casualty could be Pakistan’s international credibility. A state that treats human rights as a negotiable commodity–a box to tick when convenient–sends a chilling message not just to Brussels but to global investors, trade partners and civil society. Thus, the road ahead calls for more than showpieces. It demands real reform, may they be systematic enforcement of labour laws, genuine protection of dissent, transparent mechanisms to address disappearances, and respect for free expression and minority rights, even when inconvenient.
The ongoing review should not be seen as pressure from abroad. It is a mirror held up to our own institutions and values. What we do (or fail to do) in the coming weeks will tell the world not only who we trade with, but who we choose to be. *