KARACHI, July 26: The failure of global trade talks held in Geneva does not seem to bother the government but industry representatives in Pakistan see it as a setback.
Last Monday global trade talks were suspended when the ‘Big six’ trading nations of the world failed to break the deadlock over issues relating to farm subsidies and market access. The WTO body of some 146 members was represented in the meeting by Australia, Brazil, the European Union, India, Japan and the United States.
No new date was announced for the resumption of discussions. But hope was still alive that negotiations on the development round of WTO would restart soon. Observers saw unity of interest of all members of the World Trade Organisation to bring the talks to a successful conclusion. Parties are pressing on to arrive at an agreed framework to govern international trade. And for that, impetus needs to be provided in recreation of an environment that allows negotiations to be carried on till such time when terms acceptable to all are reached.
Naseem Qureshi, additional secretary and spokesperson of the commerce ministry, responded to Dawn’s query from Islamabad saying: “It is a setback, but we need not be overly worried.” Comments from Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar could not be sought as he is out of the country.
Mr Qureshi did not see any repercussion of failed trade talks on Pakistan’s trade or its trading relationships. He argued that the country’s trade diplomacy was not limited to WTO. “We are actively involved in a number of bilateral and regional arrangements and we will carry on with our efforts to boost exports through special arrangements with trading partners,” the commerce ministry official said.
But private sector industrialists saw the episode in a dimmer light. Chaudhry Mohammad Saeed, President, Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, worried that the suspension of development round was a major setback for developing countries.
“We lowered trade barriers and opened up our markets for the benefit of the developed world,” he lamented.
Saeed said that after a long wait hope had rekindled that the developed world would be persuaded to reduce farm subsidies so as to allow an increase of import of agricultural produce from the developing world in their markets, adding: “With the break down of talks we are back to square one”.
It has to be mentioned that Brazil and India are spearheading the G20 group of developing countries in the bid to remove trade barriers.
As the members dispersed, the US trade body joined other participants, including the European Union, in blaming India and Brazil for failure of talks. WTO chief Pascal Lamy expressed his frustration and officially announced the suspension of talks in Geneva when participants agreed to disagree.
It was in 2001 that WTO negotiations were started from the capital of Qatar, meant mainly to harness the benefits of freer trade in agriculture and industrial goods for poorer nations.
