Islamabad: Former caretaker Federal Minister and Chairman of the Economic Policy and Business Development (EPBD), Dr. Gohar Ejaz, has sounded the alarm over the European Union\u2013India Free Trade Agreement, warning that it poses a serious and immediate threat to Pakistan\u2019s industrial base, particularly the textile sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Gohar Ejaz said the zero-tariff \u201choneymoon period\u201d previously enjoyed by Pakistan with the European Union has come to an end, as the EU has now extended the same zero-duty market access to India and other regional competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEarlier, Pakistan benefited from preferential zero tariffs, but now the same facility will apply across the region,\u201d he said, warning that Pakistan\u2019s competitive edge in the EU market has been severely compromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Gohar Ejaz, the EU\u2013India trade agreement could jeopardize Pakistan\u2019s $9 billion worth of exports to the European Union, most of which are textile-related. He cautioned that the fallout could be devastating for employment, with up to 10 million jobs at risk across the textile and allied industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Calling the situation a \u201cwake-up call,\u201d the former minister stressed that the government must take immediate decisions to protect the domestic textile industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo survive regional competition, the textile sector must be provided electricity and gas at regional rates,\u201d he said, adding that industrial taxes must be brought in line with neighboring countries and the overall cost of doing business reduced to regional benchmarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He further stated that Pakistani industries can no longer bear the burden of systemic inefficiencies, warning that continued delays in policy action could result in export erosion, factory closures, and large-scale unemployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe decision must be taken today,\u201d Gohar Ejaz emphasized. \u201cWithout urgent reforms, Pakistan risks losing billions in exports and millions of livelihoods.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The EU\u2013India trade agreement is expected to eliminate tariffs across major sectors including textiles, apparel, chemicals, footwear, marine products, and gems and jewellery\u2014significantly intensifying competition for Pakistan in one of its most critical export destinations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad: Former caretaker Federal Minister and Chairman of the Economic Policy and Business Development (EPBD), Dr. Gohar Ejaz, has sounded the alarm over the European Union\u2013India Free Trade Agreement, warning … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[485],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcn58.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcn58.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcn58.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcn58.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcn58.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3875"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pcn58.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3876,"href":"https:\/\/pcn58.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875\/revisions\/3876"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcn58.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcn58.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcn58.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcn58.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}