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LAHORE: The business community representatives have claimed that Pakistan will soon have a 10-year extension in the GSP+ status starting from Jan 1, 2024 to December 2034, as the EU has agreed to do so.
They have criticised the federal government and the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) for allowing the import of finished products from China and India which is disastrous for the local pharmaceutical industry.
“We had a meeting with the European Union parliamentarians in Islamabad in which they said they are re-involving Pakistan in GSP+ status from 2024 to 2034 which is crucial for the country’s export industry,” Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh disclosed in a meeting at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) on Monday.
The EU parliamentarians also said that Pakistan could increase the export of its pharmaceutical products to the European markets many times which were being imported from India earlier.
Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) Senior Vice Chairman Nadeem Zafar said the pharmaceutical Industry currently meets 95 per cent of the country’s medicine requirements. It only imports 5pc of medicine based on new molecules and compounds and new research-based products.
“Despite knowing this, the DRAP has allowed import of finished products from China and India which is disastrous for the local pharmaceutical industry,” he deplored. “Even though Pakistani drugs have a higher acceptance rate than India’s,” he said, adding that up to 90pc of the pharmaceuticals that the EU imports come from Indian companies which have received FDA approvals.
He said Pakistan has the ability and potential to export drugs to Afghanistan while pharmaceuticals are already being exported from India to Kabul via Pakistan.
Pakistani pharmaceutical businesses are unable to even change distributors in Afghanistan due to registration restrictions imposed by the former Afghan government, which allowed Indian companies to export their goods in large quantities.
Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI president Kashif Anwar assured PPMA of supporting its stance on the issue.
Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2022
