European Union has assured India that it stood by its commitment to phase out quota for textiles by the end of 2004.“We are fully committed to do away all quotas for textiles by end December 2004,” European Union trade commissioner Pascal Lamy said after a meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitely here.While US has also assured to support phasing out of all textile quotas by 2004, the EU assurance assumes significance in the wake of some countries’ attempt to get this deadline extended further.Lamy also indicated that bilateral discussions would take place shortly on a new textile package covering enhanced quotas for the Indian textile sector. During the meeting India also raised the contentious issue of higher GSP concessions to Pakistan. India has expressed concern time and again over EU’s zero import duty on garments from Pakistan under the generalised system of preferences (GSP) on the ground that it had successfully fought drug trafficking. India wants that EU should extend similar concessions to India as it had made huge efforts to contain drug trafficking. Due to zero import duty on Pakistan garments, the export of Indian garments to EU nations suffered an estimated loss of $ 300 million annually. Ahead of the Cancun WTO ministerial in September, Lamy’s meeting with Jaitley was largely dominated by multilateral issues with both sides trying to seek commonality of views on some areas.Later, while addressing a meeting organised by Ficci, Lamy said that “after witnessing roadblocks at the recent WTO mini-ministerial at Tokyo, a convergence of views appeared to emerge between India and the EU on some contentious issues like TRIPs and public health and market access in agriculture.”
