'Poor nations unlikely to benefit from WTO moot'

The 150-member World Trade Organisation (WTO) is starting its crucial week-long meeting at Hong Kong from December 13 to reach agreement for expanding trade in agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors amid fears of many poor countries, which lack the infrastructure or the expertise to engage in world trade, that they might not benefit much from this globalisation.
Independent economists and experts of WTO negotiations and issues told Business Recorder here on Sunday that agriculture is the central area of Hong Kong WTO negotiations which could be the benchmark for the rest of the negotiations, as for millions of farmers in developing countries, agriculture is not commerce but subsistence and its link to development is recognised by everyone.
They said that through a combination of high tariffs, massive domestic support and export subsidies, industrialised countries retain inefficient agricultural production in their economies at the cost of agriculture development in developing countries.
They said that Pakistan, which has played a central role in WTO negotiations as a member of Cairns Group, G-20 and G-33, wants reduction in tariff reduction for market access as its agro-based SMEs in food processing, preservation and packaging, fruit and vegetable sectors are to gain immensely.
"Higher farm prices generate additional output, increase incomes and rural employment, reduce rural poverty, help expand exports and technical assistance (eg aid-for-trade) important to meet global food safety and quality standards," they added.
They pointed out that Pakistan has made adjustments on market access, as it has lowered applied tariffs to 0-25 percent. Bound tariffs remain well above applied tariffs. No additional tariffs cuts are required by Pakistan, and Pakistan will benefit from tariff cuts and reduction in trade distorting subsidies in other countries (including developing countries: south-south trade).
The experts said that in the service sector, enormous pressure is being put on developing countries to open their service markets to powerful foreign based, for-profit corporations from the industrialised countries.
There are 12 main sectors for the purpose of classification of services which are business, communication, financial, construction/engineering , health, tourism/travel, distribution, education, environment, recreation/culture/sporting, transport and others.
They said that Pakistan has received requests from many countries and has so far made commitments of openings in only the first of the above-mentioned 12 services sector.
"Pakistan's strategy should be to stress on sectors where substantial gains could be achieved immediately or near future and also use it as leverage for getting market access in services markets of other countries and export of its huge labour force to work in other rich countries" they emphasised.
With regard to Non-Agriculture Market Access (Nama) the experts said that Pakistan like other developing countries wants that the developed countries should provide enhanced access to markets to the developing countries.
They said that it would be also in Pakistan's interest if Nama negotiations accomplished two things simultaneously (i) ensure that the remaining high tariffs, tariff peaks and tariff escalation in developed countries are eliminated in this round, and (ii) ensure sufficient flexibility to accommodate the sensitive sectors and adjustment needs of developing countries to create the conditions for further liberalisation.