Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Report on the operation and effect of Regulation (EU) No 1029/2012 introducing emergency autonomous trade preferences for Pakistan

As part of the EU's response to the devastating floods from July to September 2010 that affected extensive parts of Pakistan, the European Council, in a Declaration on Pakistan attached to its Conclusions of 16 September 2010, resolved to mandate Ministers to agree urgently on a comprehensive package of short, medium and longer term measures which would help underpin Pakistan's recovery and future development, comprising inter alia ambitious trade measures essential for economic recovery and growth.

Regulation (EU) No 1029/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 introducing emergency autonomous trade preferences for Pakistan (hereafter referred to as "the Regulation"), granted trade preferences to Pakistan for 75 products. These trade preferences came in the form of 49 products that could be imported into the EU without duties or quantitative limitations (those listed in Annex I of the Regulations) and 26 products that could be imported at zero duty subject to quantitative limitations, i.e. tariff rate quotas (products listed in Annex II of the Regulation).

The analysis regarding the effects on trade is primarily based on examining the evolution of imports from Pakistan into the EU for the products covered by the autonomous trade preferences. While the preferences were granted from 15 November 2012 to 31 December 2013, the analysis is focused on the calendar year 2013 which is compared to the average imports over the three preceding years (2010, 2011 and 2012). Due to data availability and for ease of data comparison, data is based on the EU of 27 Member States (EU27) since Croatia's accession took place on 1 July 2013.

Also for reasons of data availability, reliability and comparability the analysis is based on data measured in value rather than quantity. The main data source for EU imports from Pakistan is Eurostat (COMEXT). The analysis of effects on EU economy and jobs has been mainly based on examining production and employment data based on, inter alia, Eurostat Prodcom data (NACE Rev 2.0). The analysis is also mainly focused on the textiles and clothing sectors since these occupied the majority of products covered by the autonomous trade preferences.