President of the Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, Chairman of the National Business Group Pakistan, Chairman of the FPCCI Policy Advisory Board, and former Provincial Minister for Information Technology, Mian Zahid Hussain, has expressed concern over the decline in Pakistan\u2019s export receipts from key European markets.
\nHe said safeguarding preferential access to the European Union under GSP+ should be a national economic priority.
\nThe Ministry of Commerce should work with exporters to develop strategies for individual markets and key products where receipts are declining.
\nCiting the State Bank of Pakistan\u2019s October 2026 Monthly Export Receipts Report, Mian Zahid Hussain said Pakistan\u2019s merchandise export receipts from European markets fell by 1.84 percent year on year to $2.35 billion during July\u2013September 2026. Receipts from Western Europe declined by 8.51 percent and those from Eastern Europe by 15.05 percent. Receipts from Germany fell by 12.77 percent, Italy by 8.49 percent, Belgium by 7.57 percent and the Netherlands by 3.07 percent. He urged the Ministry of Commerce to identify the reasons for the decline by product and work with exporters to address buyers\u2019 concerns about pricing, quality and delivery.
\nMian Zahid Hussain said the US\u2013Iran war and closures of the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb had disrupted global trade, raising freight and insurance costs and lengthening transit times from Pakistan to Europe.
\nPakistani textile exporters had also reported that rising production and raw material costs were weakening their competitiveness.
\nHe welcomed Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry\u2019s October 8 announcement that Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) would resume its weekly \u2018Premium I-Pak\u2019 service from Karachi to major European ports. Maintaining the service would help exporters lower freight costs and deliver orders on time.
\nMian Zahid Hussain said that, according to the European Commission, \u20ac7.5 billion worth of Pakistani exports were eligible for GSP+ preferences in 2024, with estimated tariff savings of \u20ac732 million. Any disruption to these preferences could affect textile and apparel orders, industrial employment and foreign exchange earnings. He said the EU\u2019s 2023\u20132025 review of Pakistan\u2019s GSP+ implementation, released in July 2026, raised concerns about practical progress on freedom of expression, minority protection and the prevention of forced labour and child labour. With transitional arrangements for existing preferences in place until the end of 2028, he urged the federal and provincial governments to demonstrate verifiable progress in implementing the 32 international conventions so that Pakistan could submit a strong application for continued preferences from 2029.
\nMian Zahid Hussain said India and the European Union had concluded negotiations on a free trade agreement and the European Commission had submitted proposals to authorise its signing. Once the agreement enters into force, Indian textiles and apparel will gain better access to the European market. This could narrow Pakistan\u2019s existing tariff advantage in products for which exporters from both countries compete for the same buyers. Any disruption to Pakistan\u2019s GSP+ preferences during this period would make it harder to retain existing orders and secure new ones.
\nMian Zahid Hussain urged the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, provincial governments, FPCCI and the business community to work together to address the EU\u2019s concerns. He called for measures to reduce production and shipping costs and to help small and medium-sized exporters access testing laboratories recognised by European buyers, document the origin of their raw materials and meet environmental and labour standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President of the Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, Chairman of the National Business Group Pakistan, Chairman of the FPCCI Policy Advisory Board, and former Provincial Minister for Information Technology, Mian Zahid Hussain, has expressed concern over the decline in Pakistan\u2019s export receipts from key European markets. He said safeguarding preferential …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":67284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105537,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105523\/revisions\/105537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}