WTO lauds Pak’s role in trade liberalization, negotiations
By Asad Cheema

ISLAMABAD—Commending the role of Pakistan in the WorldTrade Organization (WTO) negotiations, Director General of WTO Pascal Lamy said, Pakistan has been making impressive contributions in trade liberalizations.
He said “Pakistan has been making very impressive contributions intrade liberalization as well as negotiations and if we had 150 Pakistanis in the WTO, the Doha round would have completed three years ago”.
Pascal Lamy was responding to a question raised by Dr. Rozina Tufail,MNA in the Annual Session of the parliamentary conference on the WTO at Geneva. Addressing the parliamentary delegates from around the world, Mr. Lamayhighlighted the costs of failure of Doha round negotiations at the WTOand urged the parliamentarians to raise their level of responsibility to ensure a timely deal in WTO negotiations, a fax message received here Saturday said.
Responding to a question asked by Dr. Rozina Tufail whether newformulation of the U.S Farm Bill and European Union’s CAP reforms would lead to WTO success, he said that these were important legislation, which would have far reaching effect on the forthcoming deal at the WTO.
In another session of the conference, Ms. Bushra Rahman, MNAcalled for an early conclusion of Doha round negotiations. She emphasized thatPakistan was a strong supporter of the multilateral trading system and thus wanted the parliamentarians around the world to see it that the trade negotiations at Geneva culminate successfully to the distinct advantage of developing countries.
The representative of Swiss National Council, while responding to Ms. Bushra Rahman’s query, informed that it was tough to exclude agriculture from multilateral trade talks and that there was no alternative either.
Ms. Bushra Rahman enlightened the house that Pakistan was a strongadvocate of keeping agriculture as a part of single undertaking at the WTO, as agriculture was the primary occupation for most population in developing countries, including Pakistan. Pakistan’s parliamentary delegation was comprised of Ms. BushraRahman, Dr. Rozina Tufail and Sabir Awan, Members of National Assembly.
The two-day annual session of the parliamentary conference is beginjointly chaired by the President of IPU (Inter - Parliamentary Union) Pier Casini and the vice president of European Parliament Manuel Anto io.
Prominent among speakers were Director General of WTO Pascal Lamy, Foreign Minister of Brazil Celso Amorium, and Japanese Minister of Agriculture Matsuoka.