Euro MPs demand safeguards in Pak trade deal

Euro MPs called Thursday for extra protection for European businesses in trade concessions the European Union wants to give Pakistan to help the country recover from devastating floods.

Nuno Melo, a conservative Portuguese lawmaker, warned that the proposal to lift import duties on 75 Pakistani products would be a "tragic decision for Europe."

Melo called for forms of compensation to be installed such as quotas on textile products, a vital industry in Portugal, Greece and Spain, countries he said were already enduring a "serious crisis."

The impact "may not be great" for the 27-nation bloc as a whole, "but for us it would be huge," he stressed.
Italian Liberal lawmaker Niccolo Rinaldi also urged the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to take measures to "avoid creating a precedent" for other countries and "worsen the crisis" in the European textile industry.

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht sought to reassure the 736-member legislature in Strasbourg, insisting that an analysis showed that the impact on European products would likely be "modest."

The trade advantages, which must still be approved by the World Trade Organization, will have a lifespan of three years, De Gucht said.

He also dismissed fears that the measures would exacerbate unemployment in Europe, calling such talk "not serious."

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