ISLAMABAD, March 21: The Group-33 on Wednesday agreed on a revised list of indicators that would form the basis of selection of special products (SPs) -- no duty reduction -- under the agreement on agriculture (AoA).

The G-33 commerce ministers met in Jakarta to finalise their strategy on SPs and Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM).

The agreement had been reached in the backdrop of the Pakistan’s new proposal on SPs which was tabled in the Geneva based WTO recently in a bid to bridge the gap between G-33 with the rest of the blocs on the issue of selection of SPs.

An official announcement issued here by commerce ministry said that the member countries also agreed on the future work programme so that the G-33 members were ready with a revised proposal when the EU and the US table their revised proposal on reduction of agricultural subsidies and reduction of tariff.

Speaking on the occasion, Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan stressed the importance of growing South-South trade especially in agricultural products. He said that while Pakistan fully supported the concept of SPs and SSM for developing countries this demand should be reasonable.

Not only this would be helpful for them to build on their existing trade but would also enable the G-33 to apply pressure on major subsidies to present constructive proposals on reducing subsidies and opening of markets, he added.

Mr Khan also took this opportunity to make a new proposal to move forward negotiation on agriculture. His proposal involved asking the G-33 members to agree on a limited number of indicators, which take into account all concepts of food security, livelihood security and rural development needs.

"We have concrete proposals. We have to make decisions and move on. The time is now. Everybody has to understand the mechanics of negotiations. There is a time to come to a conclusion and not to keep restarting positions and others to make concessions. We need to conclude now and not lose this opportunity," the minister said.

The minister has warned that time was running out for Doha negotiations and it was time for negotiators to finalise the round. "If such a progress is not achieved, it is likely that the round may collapse," he warned.

Mr Khan said that this would be a major loss for the whole world and in particular for developing countries. “We are now in the end game. Either we make use of this narrow window of opportunity or we let it slip. However, if we do let it slip, we, particularly developing countries, will pay very dearly for it," he added.

The G-33, which is coordinated by Indonesia and includes large countries such as India, China, Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria and small African and Latin American countries, is a coalition around the concept of protecting some agricultural products known as SP.