February 26, 2003	Wednesday	Zul Hijjah 24, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 25: The government will have to establish a strict regulatory system to ensure the quality and standards of goods for consumers following the implementation of WTO regimes.

This was stated by director research on WTO, Dr Syed Wajid H. Pirzada, at a seminar, titled “globalization of food and agricultural trade and its impact on Pakistan Poultry industry: challenges and opportunities”. The seminar was organized by Poultry Research Institute, Punjab, on Tuesday.

The researcher warned that in case Pakistan did not come up with these counter measures, there was every possibility that Pakistani markets would be dumped with substandard goods, resulting into possible closure of local industries.

He said even India had introduced mandatory quality of poultry products to check import of low-quality items and maintain competitiveness of the local products in line with the international standards.

Dr Pirzada said the share of livestock sector in the foreign exchange earnings was 12 per cent, and it could be enhanced to a reasonable level through active participation by private and public sector for the development of the industry.

He cited examples as to how the global poultry market was responding to new opportunities and challenges.

He said public health and food safety had got new provisions under international trading regimes, and the premium in terms of market access could only be benefited, if competitiveness in terms of cost and quality was created in the poultry products.

With these measures, the researcher said, the poultry would become a global product, which could be then be sold with confidence and certainty.

He underlined the need for having relevant research priorities and for investing in the human resource development for capacity building in the face of emerging WTO regime.