MONTREAL, July 28: Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar has asked Canadian business houses to make investments in Pakistan as WTO’s mini ministerial meeting began here on Monday amid protests.

Three-day meeting is being attended by nearly 26 trade ministers representing a cross-section of WTO members, including Pakistan.

An 11-member Pakistani delegation headed by Humayun Akhtar arrived in Toronto via New York Sunday evening. The delegation is due to reach Montreal Monday evening to attend the WTO meeting which will assess progress made to date with a trade treaty known as the Doha Development Agenda.

Local official here said the meeting was “likely to be the last chance for the ministers to take stock of the negotiations and determine what kind of flexibility is still needed heading into a crucial full-scale WTO meeting in September in Cancun, Mexico.”

Soon after his arrival in Toronto, Humayun Akhtar, leader of Pakistani delegation said that his country is offering numerous incentives for foreign investments. Speaking to a gathering of Canadian industrialists and businessmen, the minister said that conditions for foreign investments and joint ventures are very favourable in Pakistan.

A day before the commencement of the WTO meeting, about 1,000 people gathered in downtown Montreal to voice their opposition to the WTO. The demonstrators said they wanted to draw attention to the impact trade and trade negotiations have on refugees, immigrants and indigenous peoples in Canada and around the world.

Bud Freed, a known Canadian activist and a member of anti-poverty and anti-war groups travelled from Sudbury to Montreal to address the first protest rally and said the WTO was serving the interest of the rich.

Samira Rahmani, one of the organizers of Sunday’s demonstrations, said the international trade agenda is driven by capital and profit and affects not just goods and services but also human beings whose labour is exploited in developed countries.

Earlier in the day, a group representing Quebec’s agriculture producers held a news conference to discuss their fears the WTO talks will have a negative impact on the province’s dairy and poultry producers.

The producers have formed a new coalition to support Canadian negotiators, who join many developing countries in calling for the complete elimination of $300 billion in agriculture subsidies.

Laurent Pellerin, chairman of the Union des Producteurs Agricoles, said he doesn’t want to see disputes over agriculture subsidies destroy entire communities in Quebec the way Canada’s softwood lumber dispute with the United States has hurt British Columbia.