As the WTO negotiations to finalise a draft framework agreement entered a crucial stage in Geneva on Wednesday, with a major difficulty in the area of agriculture. Pakistan has also raised the issues of vital concern for the country.
"There are two issues of vital concern for Pakistan. First is related to demand by EU and the other is that rich countries are maintaining a huge list of sensitive products", Humayun Akhtar informed a meeting of G-20 countries.
Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar is leading a high-level delegation comprising Commerce Secretary Tasneem Noorani and Food and Agriculture Secretary Ismail Qureshi to participate in the WTO negotiations.
In a G-20 meeting chaired by Celso Amorim, minister for foreign trade and foreign affairs of Brazil, the Group finalised its strategy, says a press release issued here on Wednesday.
Humayun Akhtar informed the Group that since these products are not proposed to be subjected to normal tariff reductions, it would mean that there will be no increase in market access.
He said since Pakistan has no access to Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQs) in developed countries, and such goods covered almost 25 percent of their tariff lines, any acceptance of a large list of sensitive products will not be acceptable to us.
The second major issue is in the area of reduction in domestic subsidies. The US has proposed creation of a new Blue Box to make subsidies less trade distorting.
However, the G-20 countries are of the view that if a new Blue Box is allowed, it should have tough disciplines. Otherwise, it will enable the US and other major countries to shift their subsidies to this Box. This would mean that there will not be any effective overall reduction in subsidies.
So far the US, EU, G-20, G-10 and other groups are not showing any flexibility. If there is a breakthrough, a revised document may be produced. However, if there is no progress, many observers fear that like Cancun, the talks may fail. Another possibility is that a very general type of framework may emerge which will postpone most of the difficult issues after the framework stage.
If any substantive progress is made in agriculture negotiations, other areas of focus such as industrial goods, development and trade facilitation can be quickly settled. Heads of the 147 delegations would he meeting late Wednesday or early Thursday to discuss the new draft.
Humayun Akhtar also took this opportunity to meet other commerce and trade ministers who are participating in these negotiations. He had a meeting with Jayakrishna Cuttaree, Mauritian minister for foreign affairs, international trade and regional co-operation, and discussed how the current economic co-operation could be strengthened.
In particular, they discussed the post-quota scenario for textiles and clothing and how the two countries could co-operate to meet the challenges.
Cuttaree also referred to a forthcoming visit of the Mauritian prime minister to Pakistan.
Humayun Akhtar also had a lengthy bilateral meeting with George Yeo, Singaporean minister for trade and industry. They explained their respective viewpoints in the ongoing WTO negotiations. They also discussed various steps which could be taken to further strengthen the current economic relationship between the two countries.
Both ministers agreed that multilateral process is in the best interests and that they would continue to play a positive role in the ongoing negotiations.
Commerce Secretary Tasneem Noorani requested George Yeo to extend the services of Singaporean experts to enable Pakistan to plan and implement its new Trade Policy initiative, which envisages setting up of garment cities and industrial clusters along the lines Singapore successfully did under the aegis of Singapore Trade Development Board.
Humayan Akthar also met Dr Supachai, DG (WTO) to discuss the process and substance of the ongoing negotiations.