Pakistan has a very clear stance and wants that level playing should be provided for a fair and equitable global trade, Pakistan wants removal of all trade distorting subsidies being provided through provision of domestic support and export subsides by the developed countries. "We also want removal of tariff and no-tariff barriers for a fair market access."
This was stated by Sikandar Hayat Boson, Minister for Food, while inaugurating one-day national consultation on " Doha Development Round and Road to Hong Kong", organised by Minfal, Actionaid Pakistan and Sustainable Agriculture Action Group.
"Uruguay round did little to reduce the overall trade distorting support and level of agricultural protection. The developed countries have maintained high subsides and continue to protect their agriculture through high tariffs; this causes inequitable distribution of increasing global trade," he added.
He said Uruguay round, however, provided a framework for future reductions in agricultural support and protection. The negotiation process for these reductions started at the 4th WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, in November 2001. WTO members agreed to launch a new broad-based round of multilateral trade negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda.
The EU, the G-20, USA and EU have circulated proposals on the main commitments for reduction in tariff; domestic subsides, and export subsidies to facilitate the agreement in Hong Kong. However, divergence among these groups on the level of the reductions for tariffs and domestic subsidy cuts still exists.
Ismail Qureshi, secretary Minfal, said: "Pakistan is trying to protect its agriculture as well as benefit by exporting the access agriculture production such as horticulture products, dairy products and fisheries."
He was of the view that the ministry of agriculture was in constant touch with the Geneva mission as well as ministry of commerce to safeguard the interests of the farming community and agriculture in Pakistan.
He welcomed the joint consultation by civil society and government and hoped that this trend would continue and all the stakeholders would be guiding the government.
There are three key agreements, which are being discussed in Doha Development Round. The Doha Development Round provided an opportunity to fix the un-balanced WTO agreements generated in Uruguay Round.
The purpose of putting the Development 'D' was to share the benefit of global trade. It seems that so far the four years of Doha Round had been wasted, said Mustafa Talpur of Actionaid Pakistan, while speaking in the consultation. He added that 'it is imperative to re-write the trade rules to achieve the desired results.'
SUBSIDIES: The rich countries were shifting subsidies from one box to another under agreement of agriculture and these subsidies are hurting billions of farmers in developing countries as the overproduction and dumping of subsidised products in international markets are pushing poor farmers to poverty.
On the front of services negotiations, rich countries are forcing developing countries to commit at least 93 sub-sectors without knowing the future consequences of such liberalisation in services, especially the public services, including health, education and water. On one hand, privatisation of basic services will deny the human rights and on other hand, it will shrink the role of state. The Non-Agriculture Market Access (Nama) negotiations are pushing countries to adopt the deeper cuts in higher import tariff approach, which will hurt the domestic industry in developing countries. This might lead to de-industrialisation in developing countries and job losses.
Dr Wajid Pirzada and Najma Sadeque of Shirkat Gah asked the government to be very careful in adopting future strategy on WTO.