G90 asked to strive for special treatment: Global trading system
By Our Reporter
ISLAMABAD, July 14: Pakistan has urged G90 countries to insist on special and differential treatment through lower tariff reduction and longer implementation periods to get maximum advantage from the free trade under multilateral trading system.
Participating as a special guest at the G90 ministerial conference in Mauritius the other day, the Federal Commerce Minister, Humayun Akhtar Khan, said that "our coming together has had a profound impact on how trade negotiations were conducted.
No longer are we on the periphery. We all matter now. Nonetheless, we should exercise our influence with due care and responsibility. We have to be mindful that negotiations are give and take".
He said that it was time that "we avoid being dubbed as free riders as in the GATT days, which gave us no leverage in negotiations". In fact, he said we tried that approach for 50 years and it never worked for us.
"We should undertake reform commitments. It would not only give us more negotiating power but also enable us to avail the increased opportunities which freer trade may bring for us. Framework is just the first step. If we are able to build on it in good time, that is where gains lie".
According to a copy of the minister speech released here on Wednesday, the minister urged the member countries that significant breakthrough in negotiations of Agriculture Reforms and Non-Agriculture Market Access (NAMA) would secure for our huddled masses a share in the growth of international trade that would sustain their economic development.
He ruled out the impression that withdrawal of subsidies on food items would result in increasing the food prices. "We have to be mindful of the fact that the unsustainable dumping of cheap and subsidized agricultural products from developed to developing countries would forever keep us dependent upon imports and increase our food insecurity.
If we continue with the present distorted system, we would always be where we always have been", he warned. Similarly on NAMA, he said we were liberalizing autonomously by reducing tariffs after realizing that it was in our interest.
"If we are doing so, why not negotiate and get something in return? On average exports of developing countries face much higher tariffs in developed countries than those of developed countries to developing countries", he added.
He said that trade is always better than aid. "If we can succeed in getting developed countries to eliminate high tariffs which they still maintain on labour-intensive products, it would make a difference to the lives of millions of poor people living in the third world".
Mr Khan said that following the failure of Cancun ministerial conference, the developed countries were opting for free trade agreements (FTAs). He proposed that we demand for more market access, get developed countries to accept the concept of Special Products and special safeguard measures for developing countries.
