Former Supreme Court of Gambia chief justice Muhammad Arif Chaudhry has said that countries may use Trade Remedy Laws to provide disguised protection to their local industry and avoiding their international commitment of moving towards free trade.
Nations are allowed to derogate from their WTO obligations, for a temporary period of time, with the aim of protecting their domestic industry, and to prepare their local producers for the competition, both from imports in the domestic market, as well as to improve their export competitiveness against foreign goods in the international markets.
He was addressing a one-day conference on "trade remedial laws under the WTO system: experience of Pakistan", jointly organised by the WTO Cell, the Punjab Planning and Development Department and the University Law College, the University of Punjab at the New Campus in Lahore.
Advisor on WTO, P&D Department Govt. of the Punjab Inaamul Haque, Principal University Law College Professor Ashfaq Ahmad Khan, Dr Faizullah Khilji former chairman National Tariff Commission of Pakistan, WTO Consultants Hanna Irfan and Miss Shandana Khan, business leaders, government officials, trade consultants and students also attended the conference.
Chaudhry told the conference that in the current state of affairs where the Doha Round Negotiation mandate was to clarify the disciplines that govern trade remedy laws with the view to the special needs of developing and least developed countries, and this workshop organised by the P&D Department and Punjab University Law Department is both timely and useful.
What emerges from the dialogue between trade law experts and the stakeholders gave us a good assessment of where Pakistan stands in fulfilling its international obligations and utilising the policy space allowed under the current trade remedy law agreements and also provided some food for thoughts or more importantly, concrete ideas, on the way forward for our policy makers at the WTO negotiations table, he said.
He also told the participants that this type of conference or workshop contribute towards bringing the decision makers into contact with those who are directly effected by their performance in Geneva and contributes in no small way to making the policy formation process, inclusive and relevant to the domestic contexts.
Advisor on WTO P&D, Punjab Inaamul Haque in his opening remarks, said the WTO is reality which cannot be wished away. Its impact is wide and organisation affects almost all sectors of economy. This impact will become more and more significant as our volume of trade increases. "We have to find a way to cope with the WTO phenomenon, respond to its challenges and derive benefits from the opportunities offered," he said.
Inaamul Haque said the WTO was much misunderstood and complex organisation and these agreements are couched in technical legal language. Hence, much effort is required to gain proficiency in the WTO laws, agreements and practices. WTO operations are vitally important for commerce and industry in the county.
There are some genuine apprehensions and hazards, which need to be addressed, both by the government and private sector. He further pointed out that there is a risk that Pakistan may become, due to free trade orientation of the WTO rules, a victim of unfair trade.
Haque also said that to derive benefits from laws we have to continuously build capacity of the government officials, entrepreneurs, business executives, functionaries of trade bodies, lawyers and accountants. Any one who is not satisfied with decision of national tariff commission and appellate body provided under the law, can through the relevant government take the matter to the Dispute Settlement Mechanism of the WTO, he added.
Former National Tariff Commission of Pakistan chairman Dr Faizullah Khilji, Law College Punjab University Principal Ashfaq Ahmad Khan and WTO Consultants Shandana Khan and Hanna Irfan also gave their presentations.
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