http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=at9RYA5VWdwI&refer=worldwide
Pakistan Plans to Contest EU Trade Advantages for India at WTO By Warren Giles Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- 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. To contact the reporter on this story: Warren Giles in Geneva at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Last Updated: December 13, 2006 04:22 EST +++ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
