ISLAMABAD, Sept 16: The National Assembly on Tuesday decided to debate the four WTO agreements and devise a national policy on globalization issues.

The decision came after the adoption of a resolution tabled by MNA Rozina Tufail of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, who said the agreements were “contentious.”

Speaking on her resolution that was fielded in the absence of the opposition, which had walked out of the session after shouting slogans for 20 minutes, Ms Tufail said that successive governments had given no consideration to the WTO agreements that were concluded in 1994, which were now proving to be harmful for the national economy.

She reminded legislators about the agreement on agriculture which, she added, would ruin the country’s farmers if enforced in its letter and spirit.

Criticizing the lack of public awareness about the consequences of the WTO regime, she said that none of the governments had so far tried to educate them in this regard, adding that the WTO regime was an essential part of the globalization and trade liberalization process.

She said that it was necessary to take the people into confidence about the dangers of the WTO.

Parliamentary commerce secretary Mazhar Ahmad Qureshi did not oppose the resolution when Deputy Speaker Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob asked him to state the government’s position but said the government had constituted a task force to study WTO agreements and suggest measures to meet challenges arising out of the WTO regime.

When the move was put to vote, a majority of the members of the ruling coalition voted for the national assembly to devise a policy in this regard on the basis of study by the task force.

WTO Watchgroup: Meanwhile, the WTO Watchgroup (WWG), a union of several non-governmental organizations, including the Network for Consumer Protection, has said the talks at the sixth ministerial conference at Cancun, Mexico, failed because of a rare unity shown by Asian and African countries on liberalization of agriculture against the demand of the European Union and Japan for rules on investment and other issues, raised at the Singapore conference, like competition, public procurement and trade facilities.

In a Press release, the WWG said, “it is a victory for developing nations and defeat for the world which has been seeking unjust concessions at the cost of the developing world and making the globalization regime for its benefits alone”.