February 1, 2006	Wednesday	Muharram 2, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 31: The 148 WTO member countries are not fully satisfied with the outcome of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration as it only ensures the survival of the multilateral trading regime.

This was the crux of the WTO Hong Kong debriefing, jointly organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Actionaid Pakistan (AAP), Economic Justice and Development (EJAD), and SAAG here on Tuesday.

“Success is determined by level of expectations, which was extremely low in Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration. Neither developing nor developed member countries of WTO are fully satisfied with Hong Kong Ministerial (HKM) Declaration and the only winner of HKM is WTO in itself,” the speakers said.

It was observed that the deadline of 2006 for finalization of modalities would not be honoured and Pakistan was bound to think of increasing its power in WTO negotiations.

The speakers said most of the difficult decisions, including the agreement on workable modalities and finalization of binding commitments, were put off to future meetings to be held in April and July 2006. However, it was far from clear why rich countries that were unable to show the necessary leadership to accommodate the concerns of developing countries in Hong Kong would behave any differently in a few months’ time.

Analyzing the ministerial declaration, Dr Abid Qayum Suleri of SDPI said any single ministerial declaration could not be gauged for its impacts on poverty reduction and development.

He said there were certain textural improvements in the declaration. However, apart from the commitment to eliminate export subsidies in agriculture by 2013, nothing concrete was committed in Hong Kong for developing countries.

He was also of the opinion that Fast Track Authority of US administration that was coming to an end in April 2007, midterm Senate elections in the US during 2006, presidential elections in France during 2007 and presidential elections in the US during 2008 were the major hurdles in achievement of any solid outcome and completion of Doha Work Programme till year 2009.

Dr Suleri stressed on enhanced cooperation between government, civil society and private sector on WTO issues.

Dr A.R.Kamal of PIDE highlighted the market distorting effects of subsidies, saying their indiscriminate use would lead to inefficient industry.

He, however, argued that inputs for agriculture sector must not be taxed to provide a level-playing field to our farmers who had to compete with subisidized agriculture of global north.

“WTO history is full of false promises and missed deadlines on part of developed countries who lack a political will to provide any relief to the poor and the marginalized of the world. In order to pressurize the developed world and to give a human face to WTO negotiations, the developing countries should remain united,” said Aftab Aalm of Actionaid International.