Pakistan has been the European Union’s largest GSP+ beneficiary for a decade. The European Commission’s fifth monitoring report, released on July 16, 2026, confirms that position with numbers that reflect real gains for Pakistani exporters, workers, and the institutional architecture the scheme was designed to strengthen.
The commercial headline is straightforward. In 2024, EUR 7.115 billion of Pakistan’s eligible exports successfully used GSP+ preferences out of EUR 7.482 billion eligible, producing a preference-utilization rate of 95.1 percent, the highest among all beneficiary countries. The EU accounted for 28 percent of Pakistan’s total exports, making it the single most important market for Pakistani goods. In 2024 alone, Pakistan got a EUR 732 million tariff exemption amount, which is about 9 percent of its total exports to the EU. That figure is a direct commercial benefit for Pakistani factories and workers, not an abstraction.
The top five export sectors, clothing, textiles, leather, prepared foods, and miscellaneous manufactures, achieved preference-utilization rates between 93.6 and 97.7 percent, sustaining labor-intensive production and employment across Pakistan’s industrial base. The Philippines and Sri Lanka, the next largest GSP+ beneficiaries, trail Pakistan significantly on export volume. By any commercial measure, the scheme has worked for Pakistan’s export sector.
The EU also committed EUR 400 million in financial support to Pakistan for the 2021 to 2027 period, covering green growth, human capital, governance, education, climate resilience, rule of law, skills development, and women’s participation. That commitment reflects a relationship Brussels views as strategic, not transactional.
A Reform Record That Deserves Recognition
The report is more than a trade ledger. It documents a range of institutional and legislative advances that reflect genuine effort across multiple sectors.
Pakistan’s National Commission for Human Rights received GANHRI A-status accreditation in 2024, the highest international standing for a national human rights body. This places Pakistan alongside a select group of countries whose human rights institutions meet the Paris Principles in full. Commissions on children’s and women’s rights continued during the monitoring period.
On labour, Pakistan ratified the ILO Protocol to the Forced Labour Convention in March 2025, established district vigilance committees, and adopted child-labour action plans across all provinces and territories. The gender pay gap study, a national wage reform action plan, and a roadmap for formalizing SMEs and workers indicate that labour market reform is moving from legislation toward implementation.
Four offences were removed from the scope of capital punishment, and Pakistan has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since December 2019, with presidential clemency exercised in October 2025. Domestic violence legislation has been finalized across all provinces and Islamabad. The EU recognized Sindh’s first-ever conviction for marital rape as a landmark judicial development. In a number of jurisdictions, child marriage laws were enacted.
Environmental governance produced some of the report’s strongest endorsements. Pakistan fulfilled its reporting to the UNFCCC, ratified the Kigali Amendment, and has been upgraded to CITES Category 1, a classification indicating that Pakistan’s national legislation meets CITES’ very own standards. They represent international standards, not a self-evaluation.
Governance reforms also advanced. Pakistan has finalized the second cycle UNCAC implementation review, enhanced pharmaceutical controls, reinforced narcotics laws, and adopted digital case management procedures. Institutional improvement has been ongoing, albeit at a slow pace, given progress on prison reforms, anti-torture implementation, and judicial training, such as the decrease of the Supreme Court’s appeals backlog.
The 2027 Opportunity
All existing beneficiaries will reapply for the GSP+ framework from January 1, 2027, with new sustainability and governance requirements. This is the continuation of Pakistan’s ties with the scheme gained over the past decade as its largest beneficiary. The EU has identified accountability for human rights, freedom of expression, children’s access to education, elimination of child labour, and anti-corruption as its priority areas for continued eligibility.
The report does acknowledge areas where progress has been uneven, including enforced disappearances, media freedom, and the gap between legislative adoption and on-the-ground enforcement. These are issues that have been identified by Pakistan’s own institutions as areas that need to be kept under regular focus, and the EU’s monitoring engagement offers a useful tool to assist in tracking progress.
Pakistan has exported roughly EUR 77.6 billion in goods to the EU since gaining GSP+ status in 2014. That decade of commercial partnership, built on mutual engagement and consistent compliance with all 27 international conventions, is the foundation on which Pakistan’s 2027 reapplication rests. In simple terms, the EUR 732 million in annual tariff savings to the Pakistani textile and garment industry, the country’s biggest employer and primary foreign exchange earner, is what the continued GSP+ access benefits millions of Pakistanis.
The fifth report reflects the outcome of 10 years of systematic dialogue between Pakistan and the EU. The trade numbers are the strongest in the scheme’s history for Pakistan. The institutional record shows more progress than is often acknowledged. The 2027 target is ideal for the consolidation of both, and Pakistan’s consistent performance and profitability as the most successful beneficiary of the scheme makes a good argument for the potential of the next decade.
