KARACHI, June 20: Former FPCCI vice-president Engineer M.A. Jabbar has said that a heavy workload awaits the leaders of developing countries who have to take up the Doha development agenda with seriousness and concern. “The Doha development agenda will be the basis for future trade and it will settle pending implementation issues and may add new dimensions of the obligations,” the business leader told a gathering of tax collectors.

Mr Jabbar was invited at the Large Taxpayers Unit here on Monday to speak on “Globalization and its impact on Pakistan’s economy” with emphasis on challenges and opportunities faced by the textile sector in Pakistan in the post-MFA regime, regional trade agreements, alarming trends clouding the WTO negotiations since Doha round, anti-dumping and counter-veiling duties and dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO-Pakistan’s experience.

Textile and clothing sectors in Pakistan, Mr Jabbar said, needed to raise productivity and should seek to improve investment climate to attract complementarities associated with global production sharing.

He appreciated the government’s decision for zero rating the textile sector and extending a six per cent subsidy to the sector and further facilitating the tariff rationalization for intermediary inputs to help in cost competitiveness.

The former FPCCI leader called for strengthening and empowerment of the National Tariff Commission to help national entrepreneurs in combating the flooding of goods in the market from formal and informal channels.

Mr Jabbar proposed necessary training and education for lawyers to take up cases of trade disputes in international courts.