Chairman Standing Committee on Agriculture Produce & Horticulture of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI), Ahmad Jawad has advised government to announce special tariff concessions for the agriculture sector and give subsidy at least in the form of seeds, fertilisers at optimum level in the upcoming budget for revival of the economy.
Similarly, the Finance division also directed to Zarai Taraqiati Bank (ZTBL) to start the financing on agro based industries; so that value addition environment may initiate accordingly in order to strengthen the agriculture exports; he remarked. He said Pakistan have another two years for its agriculture subsidies, if government is serious to prioritise to make effective contribution to the GDP.
In the recent moot of WTO at Nairobi, where it was principally decided that developing nations might end agriculture subsidy by the end of 2018, so that it meant being a developing nation like Pakistan have another two years for making a strong push to our agriculture which we claimed a backbone of the economy, he added As the Commerce Minister had stated in his statement after the WTO meeting that "Pakistan's agriculture exports will have a level-playing field as WTO has eliminated immediately agriculture export subsidies by developed countries.
The World Trade Organisation which represents 162 countries resolved that developed countries agreed to stop the subsidies immediately and developing nations must follow by the end of 2018, as the Nairobi Package contains a series of six ministerial decisions on agriculture, cotton and issues related to least-developed countries. These include a commitment to abolish export subsidies for farm exports.
Jawad said though this decision to scrap subsidies for agricultural exports is a significant development, which will improve the global trading environment. But without giving required infrastructure across the country and formulated soft policies for agriculture exports, yet it seems to be difficult that Pakistan may get benefit out of it in the light of recent WTO moot, he added.
Jawad highlighted that Pakistan have an immense potential in agriculture and horticulture sector. We are the 13th largest producer of Kinnow, 6th largest producer in mangoes, 5th largest in dates, one of the biggest production in cotton, sugar cane, rice and still many other key products like potatoes, onions, wheat etc with the combination of unique taste due to favourable soil conditions, but still in 21st century we failed to get proper agriculture policy yet which needs to be cover from production to value addition and competitive exports.
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