PTAs with Russia and Kazakhstan: Pakistan mission to WTO resents MoC attitude

Pakistan''s mission to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has conveyed its protest to the commerce ministry for not providing latest information on development over the proposed Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) with Russia and Kazakhstan, recently approved by the federal cabinet, it is reliably learnt. Sources said, the commerce ministry had informed the country''s permanent mission to the WTO that signing of protocols with Russia and Kazakhstan for their accession to the WTO should be linked with negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with them.
Subsequently, the Pakistani team in Geneva handed over a list of 47 items to the Russian team for PTA despite reluctance by officials of the concerned country.
When the mission sent progress report to the ministry claiming it had given the list of 47 items to the Russian team, the ministry said there was no need to ask Russia for signing of FTA conditioned with support for their accession to the WTO.
"The cabinet has approved the commerce ministry''s consent to Russian accession and we are authorising the mission to sign the protocol. However, it is clear that the FTA request is not a condition for supporting Russia on WTO accession," sources quoted the ministry as conveying to the mission.
Sources close to Pakistan''s ambassador to the WTO said the mission was of the view that the ministry had finalised negotiations with Kazakhstan two years ago, but the mission had been kept in the dark on the issue.
Similarly, the mission has no information that the ministry had accepted to support Russian and Kazakh accession to the WTO, adding the ministry should have provided terms to the mission, so that it could check their tariff schedules while submitting their proposal to the WTO.
"It is very embarrassing as we received information from the other side that our commerce ministry has already struck a deal, while we are trying to negotiate something," sources quoted Pakistan''s permanent representative to WTO Dr Manzoor Ahmad said.
According to these sources, the mission has also been informed that Pakistan had assured Kazakhstan of support for its accession to the WTO if it allowed 25 percent reduction in tariff to Pakistani products.
Initially, Russia has reduced tariffs on leather garments, apparel, clothing, sacks, bags, carpets, jewellery, toys/games and furniture. But the request for reduction in duties on items like sugar, confectionery, preparations of cereal/infant food, fruits, vegetable, juices has not been entertained, sources added.
According to the commerce ministry, Russia has offered to include Pakistan in their generalised systems of preferences (GSP) scheme following which Pakistan would enjoy 25 percent concession in duties, requiring Pakistani exporters to pay 75 percent of the MFN tariff on export of some items to Russia.
Russians have also agreed to grant Pakistan the initial negotiating rights (INRs) on certain products (INRs confer right of compensation if at a subsequent stage the Russian Federation raises tariffs beyond the bound rates), sources maintained.
In case of Kazakhstan, Pakistan sought substantial tariff reduction on products, which were of export interest to Pakistan. Major products included in the list were sugar, confectionery, fruits/vegetables, juices, milk products, fish, meat, garments, yarn, leather products, footwear, headgear, soap, razors and cutlery.
"We had made quite ambitious requests for market access, asking Kazakhstan to bind tariff at 0-15 percent level," sources added.
Initially, Kazakhstan did not offer any considerable concession and indicated to bind tariff in the range of 20-120 percent. However, they were now ready to bind their tariffs at lower level in the range of 5-23 percent which, sources said, were close to Pakistan''s demand.