August 16, 2002	Friday	Jamadi-us-Saani 6, 1423

ISLAMABAD, Aug 15: Federal Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood said on Thursday that government would take steps to meet the growing challenges of the WTO regime to protect the interests of the agriculture and industrial sectors.

He stated this while addressing a two-day workshop on “Agricultural Trade Negotiations” organized by the ministry of commerce.

The minister said that government was working on a mechanism to create awareness among the concerned stakeholders about the WTO regime and all related activities.

Those who were not aware of the implications of the issue and not taking it seriously would have to suffer in future, he alarmed.

The government was also making concerted efforts to cope with the situation to be emerging after implementation of the WTO rules aimed at creating free trade mechanism, he said.

This warrants discussing the issue and working out common strategies to combat the situation, he said and added while doing that “we must keep in mind that the most of the member states are lacking sufficient capacity and institutional support to fulfil the prescribed standards of WTO.”

He said that the government was very much concerned about the matter and taking appropriate steps to prepare the country to meet demands of the future.

In line with the WTO policy, the minister said that the government has allowed foreign investors to acquire land for investment in agriculture corporate farming.

He said “we want to set up market mechanism to have market access in accordance with the needs of the modern age and government was taking steps in that direction.”