Pakistan warned against pursuing TRIMs case: Extension in implementation
By Parvaiz Ishfaq Rana
KARACHI, May 20: Out of 148 member states of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Pakistan is the only country which is still seeking extension in the implementation of Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMs). This was stated by Pakistan’s Ambassador and permanent representative to WTO Dr Manzoor Ahmad at a seminar on “WTO – the Doha Round and Pakistan’s Interests” organized by Pakistan-Belgium Business Forum (PBBF) in collaboration with other European business forums late Thursday evening.
All the member states of the WTO, he said, were asked to get rid of such measures and countries with different economic standings were given time frame for the implementation of TRIMs. Dr Manzoor said developed countries were asked to immediately implement the measures whereas developing nations were given five years time and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) were given 10 years time.
However, he said that on the expiry of first term in 1999, the automobile industry of Pakistan sought extension in TRIMs for a period of seven years and at that time there were six other WTO member states who applied for extension.
Though the period of seven years were not allowed but two terms of two years each were given but even then, Dr Manzoor Ahmad said, the local automobile industry asked for more time but this time Pakistan was the only WTO member state which was seeking extension in the implementation of TRIMs. Being left alone among the 148-member states of WTO, Pakistan had little to push the TRIMs case but even then, he said, it was felt appropriate to apply for extension so that no other member state takes Pakistan to Dispute Settlement Panel (DSP) of the WTO. Citing an example, he said that United States took India to the DSP where the former won the case.
However, he cautioned that by next month the position over TRIMs would be clear, therefore, facts have to be accepted and suggested that if there is any problem in producing a local item, which may be because of small quantity or any other reason and its viability is not workable that item should not be produced locally.
Responding to a question, Dr Manzoor Ahmad agreed that Pakistan was not active in WTO’s DSP which could be mainly because of small quantity of exports. He said Pakistan so far only faced anti-dumping duty on bedlinen from the European Union (EU). However, he said that after Egypt imposed punitive duty on match boxes, Pakistan started taking interest in the DSP.
He regretted that his office at Geneva hardly got any feed-back from Pakistan’s private sector whereas other nations get full backing and information from their private sector on each and every move that takes place at global level. Further, he said most of the countries had experts on each subject such as agriculture, industry services, etc., to fight for their right at the world forum.
With regard to withdrawal of export subsidy on farm goods by the west, he said presently the negotiations are stalled as developed nations are seeking 15 years time for the withdrawal but G20 want the period to be around five years.
Dr Manzoor clarified that under WTO there was no bar on entering into Free Trade Agreement (FTA), or even declaring each other as Most Favoured Nation (MFN). Since WTO is a multilateral arrangement, therefore, Pakistan was keen to see that tariffs and subsidies are lowered so that level playing field was ensured to all nations.
Once this objective was achieved, he said arrangements such as FTA or regional trade agreements would automatically lose their benefit.
He also spoke on other subjects related to WTO and added that if Pakistan pursued for extension in TRIMs, it would have to pay heavy price, which may even include giving up the case of anti-dumping on bedlinen by the EU. The proceedings were jointly conducted by the heads of Pakistan-Belgium Business Forum Mr Mohammed A Rajpar and Pakistan-Italy Business Forum Aziz Memon.
