Bloomberg reports:
Pakistan plans to challenge European Union trade policy for poor nations through the World Trade Organization, concerned that among India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, it's the only one not given equal advantages.
In April 2004, WTO judges said the EU could exempt Latin American nations and Pakistan from import tariffs as long as it made the qualifying criteria open to all developing countries. That ruling followed a complaint by India that Pakistan's textile exports unfairly benefited from the EU measure, putting Indian rivals who paid higher duties at a disadvantage.
The EU revised the criteria for its preference programs a year ago to include duty-free imports for goods from South Asian nations such as Sri Lanka. The new criteria for the preferential measures exclude any nation that accounts for more than 1 percent of EU imports, catching Pakistan with 1.1 percent. Pakistan's complaint also comes just weeks after the EU said it wants to begin negotiations on a free-trade accord with India.
``The EU set very arbitrary criteria,'' Manzoor Ahmad, Pakistan's ambassador to the WTO in Geneva, said in a telephone interview yesterday. ``They chose a 1 percent threshold just to exclude us. It's neither unconditional nor treating similar countries in a similar way,'' as stipulated by the WTO's ruling, he said. ``The only countries left out were India and Pakistan and now they're working on a free-trade accord with India.''
A request by Pakistan for consultations with the EU would start a two-month period of talks under WTO rules. Unless the two sides resolve their differences, Pakistan may press ahead with litigation, asking the WTO to rule on the EU measures.
European Commission spokesman Peter Power declined to comment.
See also this article: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7005842233
If I'm reading this correctly, Pakistan is definitely planning to request DSU consultations with the EU on the matter. I can't tell from the article if this means an Article 21.5 complaint related to the previous Tariff Preferences disputes or if it means an entirely new complaint. Either way, it's certainly going to be an interesting case, and may help clarify some of what was said in the earlier Tariff Preferences case.
ADDED: I just realized that my statement that this could be an Article 21.5 complaint makes no sense. The original Tariff Preferences complaint was brought by India, of course, so Pakistan's challenge would have to be a new complaint. Sorry.
