I am very pleased that Pakistan has the honour to host the 31st meting of the Cairns Group on 16-18 April 2007 at Lahore. Although we are a recent entrant to the Cairns Group, having joined it just before the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference held in December 2005, the Group itself is one the oldest and most successful negotiating groups in the history of GATT/WTO.
This is one of the few groups where developed and developing countries from across the continents, with widely different economies, have joined together for the common cause of removing distortions caused in agricultural trade through high subsidies and protection.
In keeping with its policy to integrate its economy with the rest of the world and to seek market access for its goods, Pakistan is following unilateral, bilateral, regional and multilateral routes. It has unilaterally carried out extensive tariff and agricultural reforms and the reform process is still continuing. These reforms have placed us in an ideal position to negotiate bilateral and multilateral deals.
Despite the successful conclusion of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with a number of countries, our international trade is primarily carried out on a Most Favoured Nation (MFN) basis. Therefore, an early and successful conclusion of the Doha Round is of great importance for Pakistan.
One of the most difficult areas of negotiations in the current Round is agriculture. It is generally believed that if a successful solution can be found for agricultural issues which have both trade as well as non-trade concerns, it would be much easier to reach an early agreement in other Doha Round areas.
Keeping in view Pakistan's systemic interest in an early conclusion of the Doha Round and the possible impact such a result could have on our economy in general and reduction of rural poverty in particular, Pakistan is playing an active role in these negotiations.
Holding this second Ministerial Conference within a matter of 18 months in Pakistan is a testimony to our deep commitment in the Doha Round. The earlier G20 Ministerial Conference at Bhurban in September 2005 greatly contributed to the success of the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference. I hope that the current Cairns Group meeting would herald a similar success for the forthcoming concluding phase of the Doha Round.
Pakistan is also playing an active role in suggesting solutions for difficult technical issues which are blocking progress of the Doha Round negotiations at Geneva. Its recent proposals to the WTO on Special Products and Special Safeguard Measures are examples of this. These proposals are intended to address the concerns of developing countries so that any agricultural liberalization does not adversely impact their food security, livelihood security, and rural development without jeopardizing genuine trade liberalization.
Major objective of the Lahore Conference is to brainstorm on the key elements required for a breakthrough in the Doha Round and how the Cairns Group could best exert influence to achieve its key objectives. I am sure the Conference would be able to successfully identify those elements and also suggest possible solutions for those issues. Finally, I hope that this Conference is also able to achieve its objectives of increasing bilateral cooperation amongst Cairns Group members.
Comments
Comments are closed.