Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) Plus status established by the European Union (EU) registered a decline for last several months, significantly marking that the country has failed to use it completely. It was expected that the textile exports to the EU would go up by US $1 billion per year after securing the GSP+ status, which came into effect from January 1, 2014. The country’s textile exports fell by over 2 per cent in the first month (July) of the current fiscal year (2014-15), mainly because of the power crisis in the nation that has affected industrial production. Textile exports declined by 1.52 per cent to US $ 1.113 billion in June 2014 against US $ 1.13 billion in the last fiscal year, whereas exports to the EU stood at US $ 449 million in June against US $ 384 million during the same period.
