Eco: one step forward

IN A welcome move the 10-member Economic Cooperation Organization (Eco) has decided to promote trade among member countries by gradually reducing tariff barriers against each other to a level of 15 per cent over a period of the next eight years. An agreement to this effect was signed in Islamabad on Thursday by the official representatives of the member countries on the opening day of the second Eco ministerial meeting on trade and commerce. It is indeed a significant step towards the ultimate goal of converting the region into a homogeneous economic zone. The benefits of achieving such a goal for the people living in the region are immense as demonstrated by the prosperity and level of development the European community has attained since the member countries formed themselves into a common market. Member countries of North American Free Trade Association (Nafta) and that of Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) have also experienced similar economic successes since they grouped themselves for multilateral cooperation.

While the benefits of coming together in regional groupings are indeed many and varied, the journey on the road towards this goal is long and requires patient and painstaking efforts. In the first place, countries whose economies are heavily dependent on imports find it more difficult to come together within such an arrangement. Secondly, it is almost impossible for countries with differing levels of economic development to trade with each other within the framework of a common market without hurting other members or getting hurt by members having more developed economies. Thirdly, each of the member countries needs to achieve a certain level of internal macroeconomic stability to be able to become a source of economic benefit for each other when joined together in a common market. So, one needs to keep all these variables as well as commonalities in assessing the progress of organizations such as Eco and Saarc in their efforts to set up common economic zones.

The Eco trade agreement would attempt not only to reduce the tariff to 15 per cent over the next eight years, it also envisages a wider range of goods to be traded among the member countries over the same period to form at least about 80 per cent of the total goods they trade with the outside world. The goods now being traded among them will be considered to have come on the positive list with the signing of the agreement. From the next year onwards this list will be expanded gradually to achieve the target set for 2011. Considering the level of development of each member country, the targets concerning tariff rates and the goods to be exchanged appear appropriate. But set against the schedule for liberalizing the world trade envisaged in the WTO programme, the Eco targets appear rather modest. One only hopes that as they liberalize their economies in line with the WTO programme, the Eco member countries would review the progress periodically to update their own targets with regard to the scope and dimensions of a full fledged common market of their own. The agreement also has articles concerning dumping and intellectual property rights. It is a comprehensive agreement having about 40 articles, including safeguards against any threat that the agreement may pose to the economic interests of individual member countries. Appropriately, the member countries have agreed under the new accord to set up a cooperation council to oversee the implementation and monitoring of the agreement.

Not by propaganda alone

THE US Congress has approved $ 1.3 billion to set up Arabic language radio and television networks in the Middle East. The move comes on the heels of Pentagon’s admission that the occupying forces in Iraq are facing guerilla resistance from the remnants of the Saddam regime. US and British troops have increasingly come under attacks in recent weeks as a result of bitterness and frustration among the Iraqis over the lack of security and basic amenities such as power and water supplies. It is hard to see how a stronger and louder propaganda apparatus putting the occupying power’s point of view across to the Arab world will help ease the American dilemma in Iraq. Unless the situation on the ground improves, essential services, law and order and opportunities for employment are restored for the Iraqis, they and their fellow Arabs will remain suspicious and resentful of the role and motives of the occupiers.

America’s choices in Iraq are shrinking by the day. As a mark of desperation, the State Department is now toying with the idea of going back to the United Nations Security Council for a new mandate asking other countries to share the burden of policing and reconstruction work in Iraq. But given the public positions countries like France, Russia and others have adopted on the issue, it is unlikely that the UNSC would go along. This leaves Washington little option but to replace its exhausted marines serving in Iraq with its National Guard and reserve troops — an option which may not go down too well with the US public opinion which is already questioning the wisdom of a prolonged military presence in Iraq. It is time the US realized that the only viable solution lies in giving the UN a bigger role in overseeing the interim set-up in Iraq pending the formation of a democratically elected Iraqi government. Instead of persisting in its unilateralist approach, Washington must see the logic and need for wider international involvement and participation in the management of the post-war situation in Iraq.

Lahore’s rain sorrow

THURSDAY’s cloudburst in Lahore and parts of Punjab, probably the heaviest rainfall of the current monsoon season, paralyzed normal life and exposed the acute shortcomings of the water disposal system in the provincial metropolis. Four people lost their lives, two of them in Lahore, as a result of electrocution and house collapse. Eight others were injured in various rain-related incidents. In Lahore, which bore the brunt of the downpour, almost everything was thrown out of gear within half an hour of the start of the rain. Most roads and streets, in both the posh and relatively depressed areas, turned into streams, causing the water to enter into homes, offices and markets and leaving commuters stranded. As usual, the low-lying areas of Northern Lahore and Samanabad and Multan Road were the worst affected. Traffic moved at snail’s pace, vehicles broke down and there were many traffic snarls. Transporters made the most of the situation by overcharging the commuters. Disruptions of flight schedules and power breakdowns were some of the other disconcerting features of the rain emergency.

The flash showers falsified claims about the adequacy of arrangements for the monsoon earlier made by the authorities and exposed the woeful inadequacy of the city’s drainage system as also the lack of effective measures to meet an emergency. Even though the Wasa disposal stations were functioning normally, the city government is still grappling with the task of draining out water from many areas. Clearly, temporary arrangements are no solution to the problem of basic deficiencies. The preparation of an alternative sewerage system plan for Lahore to protect the low-lying areas is the minimum that is required to cope with situations such as the present one. The 40-year-old drainage system, besides being worn out, cannot cope with Lahore’s current and future requirements. It must be refurbished and its capacity considerably increased under a crash programme.