Pak voices against discriminatory trade practices

HONG KONG—Pakistan Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan Wednesday called for ending the discriminatory practices under which exporters of rich countries enjoyed special and differential treatment while developing countries had to pay many times more tariff on their exports. Speaking at the plenary session of the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference here, he said there should be same rules for all. Ever since the creation of the WTO “we have been moving the world trading system from a MFN (Most Favoured Nation) to LFN (Least Favored Nation) philosophy which is marginalizing poorer countries and destabilizing them,” he said.
Humayun Akhtar urged ministers from all member countries to make every effort to move the process forward. A successful conclusion of Doha Development Agenda can bring gains that are many times greater than all development assistance, he added. “Our success here will be a key factor to putting us on the right track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and our success or failure will have such wide geopolitical implications that we cannot afford to let this opportunity slip.” The Minister said the draft before the conference reflects a high degree of convergence, though it does not represent an overall agreement.
Although this draft will help establish a good negotiating atmosphere, yet making major advances in negotiations may not be possible on its basis alone, he said. This text would need to be augmented to help finalize modalities and “we may have to wait for another opportunity to do so,” he added. The Commerce Minister said: “So much is at stake here in Hong Kong that it is imperative that the process be moved forward, so that our negotiators can reach the 66-percent target within weeks of this Conference, and our objective of completing the Round in 2006 does not falter.” “Any further postponement of the Round would have serious consequences, and we risk losing this opportunity,” Humayun Akhtar cautioned.
“We may therefore be held responsible for failing to lift millions out of poverty and for depriving the world economy of potential gains of hundreds of billions of dollars,” he added. Humayun Akhtar said all believe in the Doha mandate, even if “we have recalibrated our ambition for Hong Kong.” “We have within our reach agreement on two out of three pillars in Agriculture, namely domestic support and export competition. On Cotton, we are all committed to an ambitious and expeditious result and with some flexibility from a major economy, we can have an early harvest,” he said.
Humayun Akhtar said in Non-Agriculture Market Access (NAMA) “we have moved closer and the fact that we all now agree to the use of a Swiss formula is a major step forward.” Similarly, he said, in trade facilitation enough progress has been made and there is an agreed text for working towards an agreement.—APP