ISLAMABAD, Nov 30: The Hong Kong secretariat for the sixth WTO ministerial conference has designated Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan to act as a “facilitator” for the Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) negotiations. An official announcement issued here on Wednesday by the commerce ministry said the offer came from the Minister for Commerce, Industry and Technology of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government Chun Wah Tsang, who would chair the conference.

The NAMA is very important negotiation for Pakistan, as the country among other states also tabled a proposal for cutting tariffs on industrial goods, which would be taken up at the conference next month.

For negotiations on agriculture and non-agricultural market access, the next aim is to agree on formulas and other details that will determine the scale of reductions in tariffs on thousands of products and on farm subsidies. Also on the agenda are preparation for final stages of negotiations in services, various WTO rules and a number of development issues.