Daily Times

Any country in the world must ensure protection of its citizens as per its Constitutions and keeping in mind the best practices in the world. Unfortunately, it is not implemented in letter and spirit in many countries, including Pakistan. This article refers to some literature (Kishore 2011; DRI 2016; Pasha 2014; EU 2018; Wolf 2014) to discuss the GSP Plus.

As Pallavi Kishore argues in The International Lawyer (2011), that the “developed countries can often dictate the terms of economic advancement in developing countries in a way that invokes the old colonialist system.” Generalized System of Preferences Plus(GSP Plus)and its conditionalities hinged on respect of human rights of the recipient countries smacks of ‘old colonialist system.’ Kishore also states that GSP Plus conditionalities are “an instrument of global economic governance” since the donor countries can modify these unilateral schemes. In other words, the donor countries dictate the terms of engagement and that is how it is tantamount to evocation of old colonialist system. Having said it, imposition of conditionalities also offers a way to institute a ‘culture’ of human rights.

The main objective of the GSP regime is to work towards the reduction of poverty by promoting sustainable development and good governance. The purpose behind the GSP Plus is to use preferential access and trade concessions as an incentive to push the recipient developing countries to ratify and implement the core conventions concerning human rights, good governance, labour rights and environment. GSP Plus scheme was revised in 2014 and it includes a monitoring mechanism, including monitoring by the civil society and non-state actors.

Pakistan was granted the status of GSP Plus in December 2013 and it has been operationalized since January 2014 onwards. Pakistan prepared a report after two years of being granted the status and the focused on human rights, labour rights, good governance, and sustainable development.

More than one-fourth of Pakistan’s exports (29 percent) go to 28 European Union (EU)countries. Textiles and garments, sports good, leather goods and surgical instruments are major export items for Pakistan to EU. After Pakistan was granted the GSP Plus status in January 2014, there has been 21 percent increase in Pakistan’s exports to EU between 2014 and 2016. In terms of trade and economy, Pakistan had GSP Plus utilization rate of 96.3% in 2017; and it was mostly in apparel and clothing, other made-up textiles articles, cotton, and leather products.

According to academic Zara Salman in a LSE blog; Pakistan has not been able to fully exploit the huge potential of its GSP Plus status for its economy and exports. Pakistan got 10 to 14 percent duty advantage compared to its major regional competitors. However, garments exports increased only by 10 percent between 2013 and 2015 from Pakistan to the EU, whereas Bangladesh and India’s garments exports increased by 13 and 17 percent respectively. It reflects that Pakistan has not been able to fully utilize the GSP Plus status to its maximal advantage.

A criticism of the conditional GSP schemes is that they lead to creation of “multiple layers of governance” in the developing countries. These “multiple layers” are not coherent and often lack utility

However, GSP Plus status has at least allowed Pakistan’s garments sector to slightly improve its market share despite the many challenges. Yet, in the first two years post GSP Plus status for Pakistan, Pakistan’s garment exports to the EU increased at 11 percent per year compared to 1.5 percent growth per year for the rest of the world. The major categories in the garments exports are knitwear and woven articles.

The preferential access to Pakistan’s exports in the EU market is conditioned upon Pakistan’s efforts to implement 27 core international conventions in the field of human rights, labour rights, civil and political rights, and protection of environment. GSP Plus is conceived as an economic incentive and reward scheme in exchange of the recipient countries commitment to implement the core international conventions. By accepting the GSP Plus status, Pakistan needs to maintain the ratification of 27 core conventions and work towards their implementation, as well as, accept the reporting requirements that are enforced by each convention, regularly review and monitor the status of implementation of relevant mechanisms, participate and cooperate with the relevant procedures for monitoring.

According to the press reports, lack of implementation of the core international conventions is highlighted by Pakistan’s civil society as it deemed that authorities do not appear keen to work towards the implementation of its international commitments despite the ratification.

At best, Pakistan presents “mixed” results on all fronts. Working under the carrot and stick approach of the GSP Plus, Pakistan has worked hard to improve its legal and institutional infrastructure on human rights; however, these de jure level developments yet need to be effectively implemented on the ground. All stakeholders need to work together to achieve better compliance of the country’s human rights record regarding the ratified core international conventions. Pakistan must therefore step up its efforts and take more proactive, sustained and effective action to implement legislation and to address the challenges.

A criticism of the conditional GSP schemes is that they lead to creation of “multiple layers of governance” in the developing countries. These “multiple layers” are not coherent and often lack utility. In other words, they may just be instruments for just checking the box rather than brining a meaningful change in the realm of human rights. Various players in the implementation of GSP Plus schemes may have varying objectives. There is need for “transparent discussions” between the donor countries, the developing countries, and other non-recipient actors such as the local governments, and industry in the developing countries to device a mechanism through which the objectives of various players could be better coordinated for the promotion of human rights.

The writer is an Islamabad based social scientist