08 August 2004	Sunday	21 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

KARACHI, Aug 7: The World Trade Organization (WTO) has decided not to hold special meeting in September for discussing the possibility for delaying textile quotas' elimination beyond January 1, 2005.

The Director General of the world body Supachai Panitchpakdi early this week convened a meeting of some 20 WTO member countries to discuss the effects of the pending elimination of textile and apparel quotas.

However, the issue is expected to be raised at a previously scheduled October 1 meeting of the WTO's Council on Trade in Goods.

Exporters believe that the West is striving hard to delay the quota free regime by seeking Least Developed Countries (LDCs) support. "We could not understand as to why the western nations are not ready to allow the WTO to work independently and also safeguard the interest of developing countries," another exporter said.

However, strong reaction from developing countries, including China, Brazil, Egypt, India, Indonesia seems to have averted the situation for the time being but there are fears that the developed countries would keep trying to achieve something out of the situation and would prefer to delay the quotas' elimination under one pretext or the other.

The last Monday meeting witnessed strong opposition coming from these countries whereas representatives from the US, European Union (EU), and Japan reportedly made little or no input.

But the most interesting outcome of the meeting came in the form of director general's remarks who said, "previous emergency meetings have been called on the basis of consensus, and that since that was not the case on this issue, no such meeting will be scheduled in September.

Although there is now some question about what the next step may be for the WTO or individual countries, it is clear that it will not be an extension of the quota system. Instead, some observers believe that the October 1, Goods Council meeting will address a two-step proposal by Bangladesh to help developing countries adjust to the post-quota environment.

Those countries would first identify specific problems arising from quota elimination that are likely to affect their domestic industries, then evaluate possible solutions. Other options may also be discussed, such as pressing major textile and apparel importing countries to use safeguards against imports from China more aggressively.