The government has so far failed to release a Rs 11.2 billion bailout package it committed in 2010. The only ray of hope is the private-public partnership initiative, which has been taken at the right time to rescue the largest public-sector department of the country.

First business train which is joint venture of Pakistan Railway and a private company left Lahore Railway station 5 minutes before schedule and reached Karachi Cantt station 15 minutes late Saturday.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) on Wednesday approved the much-delayed package covering 75 items at a meeting of its Council for Trade in Goods (CTG) in Geneva. The deal was scheduled to come into effect in January last year, but it was delayed after countries such as Argentina, Brazil, India, Bangladesh and Indonesia raised objections. The tariff changes will enter into force after formal approval by the WTO General Council in March.

Under the package, the total export value of the 75 tariff lines is estimated at US$1.03 billion and the average tariff on these products is around 8.86%, or less than a quarter of the $3.80 billion value of the country’s total global exports.

Major producers of yarn and cloth will be the main beneficiaries of the package, but critics say Pakistan’s textile exporters will not be able to benefit from the concessions unless the government takes serious measures to resolve a chronic energy shortage that holds back the textile processing industry.

Recurring power blackouts are costing the country dear, as businesses involved in value-added textile exports lose out to South Asian rivals including India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh, Brazil and India dropped their objections recently dropped their objections to the EU tariff package after it was amended to use tariff rate quotas (TRQs) on 20 products rather than full liberalization.

“It was a long drawn-out exercise, and something of a success for diplomacy,” Reuters reported Pakistan’s ambassador to the WTO, Shahid Bashir, as saying. “The tariff rate quotas will be set at 20% above the average of exports in 2008, 2009 and 2010. So we have at least a 25% margin over and above our 2011 exports. It gives us some flexibility.”

The EU trade package could generate $100 million to $300 million of additional textile export earnings a year, the UK’s Financial Times reported Suleman Maniya, an analyst at IGI Securities in Karachi as saying. Pakistan exported about $13 billion of textile products last year. “It’s not a game-changer, but it’s still a welcome boost,” he said.

A WTO waiver was originally sought by the EU for unilateral trade concessions on 75 products for a period of three years to help Pakistan recover from the devastation of the 2010 floods. The selected products represent almost 900 million euros (US$1.2 billion) worth of Pakistani exports to the EU, accounting for about 27% of the EU imports from Pakistan, which totaled 3.3 billion euros in 2010.

The EU is Pakistan’s most important trading partner, receiving 27.4% of the country’s exports and providing 17% of its total imports. Pakistan’s exports to the EU are mainly composed of textiles and clothing products, which account for over 60%, followed by leather products, which account for 13%. Imports from the EU mainly comprise finished products like mechanical and electrical machinery, which account for over 35%, and chemical and pharmaceuticals, at 10%.

Power and gas cuts have taken a heavy toll of the textile industry – which accounts for more than half of the country’s exports. They prevent Pakistani exporters of value-added textiles shipping orders on time and cause huge production losses to the entire textile chain, from spinning to finished goods, particularly in Punjab province.

“The power and gas cuts for the textile processing industry in Punjab have made us uncompetitive not only in the region but also within our country”, Dawn reported Rana Arif Tauseef, chairman of the Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) in Faisalabad, as saying. “The energy shortages in Punjab are going to cut our exports this year by at least $4 billion to $5 billion. The industry faced gas cuts for six months during 2011″.

The trade package is expected to improve EU relations with Pakistan at a time when the country’s ties with the US are at their lowest ebb following the November 26 air attack by North Atlantic Treaty Organization on a Pakistani post near the Afghanistan border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

EU trade preferences for Pakistani textile makers could not be approved during a meeting of trade diplomats in Geneva on November 7 after Bangladesh blocked the move. India had announced support for the waiver package following a meeting of Commerce Ministers of the two countries in September in New Delhi.

Bangladesh argued that its textile exports to the EU would be hurt in particular if tariffs were reduced for Pakistan on eight of the 75 proposed items. Bangladesh textile-sector exports to the EU have reached $16 billion from merely $2 billion a few years back, while Pakistan has peaked at a mere $1.5 billion in a total market worth $80 billion.

Approval of all WTO member counties is essential for approval of any proposal for a tariff waiver, according to WTO regulations.

The EU trade package for Pakistan also faced tough resistance from within the EU bloc, notably from southern states including Portugal, France and Italy with strong textile industries.

PSF Chairman Professor Dr Manzoor Soomro and Consul General of France to Pakistan Christian Ramage jointly inaugurated the exhibition.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the Expo, the PSF Chairman highlighted the role of travelling Expos for creating science awareness among the students. He briefed the audience about the PSF activities for promotion and popularisation of science in the country. He emphasised on the need for inquiry-based science education at grass root level and ensured best possible support from PSF to the students and teachers in science popularisation activities.

Consul General of France to Pakistan Christian Ramage appreciated the efforts of PSF and ETN School for promotion of science among the young generation. He said that France was paying special attention to the science education at primary level.

The expo “It’s all about Chemistry” is prepared by Centre Sciences, France and partners and is visiting Pakistan from January to March 2012. The Expo kicked off in Pakistan on January 6, 2012 at Education Trust Nasra School, Korangi, Karachi and continued here till January 13. After Tandojam it will travel to DG Khan, Multan, Lahore, Mansehra, Islamabad, Sibi, Jaffarabad and conclude at Quetta on March 31, 2012. This Expo is a great opportunity for the students and general public to get firsthand knowledge about Chemistry and its applications in our daily life.

The Expo organising body PSF, working under Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, is striving for promotion and popularisation of science in the country through research funding and science awareness programmes. The major exhibition arranged by PSF for science popularisation include four National S&T fairs, four mega Expos namely, S&T Expo 2007 “Shaping the Future” at Islamabad in 2007, International Maths Expo “Experiencing Mathematics” at Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar in 2008, Expo on Environment “The Earth’s Future in Our Hands” at Islamabad, Sukkur and Multan in 2009, Travelling Expo “Biodiversity is Life, Its Our life” at Islamabad, Abbottabad, Faisalabad, Khairpur and Quetta in 2011 and a large number of mobile exhibitions.

Reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) fell to $12.82 billion from $12.88 billion a week earlier, while those held by commercial banks rose to $4.08 billion, compared with $4.04 billion the previous week.

The ECO is an intergovernmental regional organisation for promoting economic, technical and cultural cooperation among its 10 member states – Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The size of private debt, or Term Finance Certificates (TFCs) in Pakistan, remained around Rs 74 billion (0.5% of GDP), which is paltry as compared to the outstanding domestic government debt of Rs 4.64 trillion (31.4% of GDP). There is clearly underexploited capacity available to support economic growth.

“If the European Union puts a ceiling on the export of seven items which are included in the market access package, the garment exports will fall further and thousands of workers will lose their jobs,” Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Prgmea) chairman Shehzad Salim said at a media briefing here on Tuesday.