Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan will attend G-20 meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Tuesday and an informal ministerial meeting of the WTO members on Wednesday at Paris. The meetings would be focused on agriculture, non-agriculture market access (NAMA), services and rules including trade facilitation. The delegates would review the progress made so far under the July framework agreement. There may be some discussion regarding conversion of specific rates to ad valorem rates, according to an official statement issued by the commerce ministry.
At present tariffs on products of potential export interest to developing countries are extremely high. This issue would be particularly addressed in the meetings. Besides addressing across-the-board tariffs, the G-20 countries would also seek expansion of tariff rate quotas.
The question of domestic support would also be raised. Pakistan would suggest that any cuts should be real and not paper cuts even if they were done from the bound levels.
Developing countries would also emphasise on elimination of high tariffs or tariff peaks and tariff escalations and bringing them at par with average tariffs.
According to rules, Pakistan would underline the need for improving the WTO rules on anti-dumping subsidies and countervailing measures, fisheries subsidies and regional trade agreements.
Pakistan is concerned about the lack of due process and transparency in anti-dumping rules under the WTO.
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