Lamy assures Islamabad of level playing field

The Director General WTO Pascal Lamy has assured that Pakistan would be provided with a level playing field in marketing its agriculture products in the developed world. The World Trade Organisation Director General was speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday.
The LCCI president Shahid Hassan Sheikh and senior vice president Yaqoob Tahir Izhar also spoke on the occasion. Pascal Lamy, while appreciating Pakistan's role in all areas of negotiations, said that he fully understood the sensitivities of Pakistan and would extend all out support on the issue of lowering tariffs on products of its export interest such as textiles and clothing in current negotiations.
He said that though there was not much progress on Doha Round, a five-year programme has been chalked out to deal with 20 items, directly related to environmental good. "The programme aims at facilitating reduction in tariffs on environmental goods and services."
The discussion on industrial and agricultural tariffs as well agricultural subsidies have picked up momentum that would have a visible bearing on the trade of many countries.
He said that WTO was trying to reach out all stakeholders to take them on board on the new developments. He said that there was a strong camp pushing for removal of subsidies on agriculture and fisheries sectors which is being resisted by some countries. He suggested that countries like Pakistan, that have great potential to enhance their trade, must prepare themselves to benefit from reduction in tariffs and removal of agriculture subsidies.
The WTO Director General, however, made it clear that unless the US and the United Kingdom do not cut rate of subsidies and tariffs, the WTO Agri talks would not move ahead. He also urged Brazil, India and China to curtail their industrial tariffs. "The issues of subsidies of industrial tariffs and agriculture tariffs should be unlocked in the larger interest of the developing world.
Expressing his concern over delay in providing a level playing field to the developing countries in marketing their agricultural products to the developed world, the LCCI president Shahid Hassan Sheikh said that Pakistan had fundamental interests in further strengthening the rules governing international agricultural trade, as agriculture was the backbone of Pakistan's economy.He said that Pakistan enjoys comparative advantage in a number of agricultural commodities such as wheat, rice and cotton.
However, the country has not been able to translate its comparative advantage into production and exports due to inadequate infrastructure, lack of value addition technologies and restricted access to markets of developed countries such as USA and EU.