ISLAMABAD, Dec 11: The G-21 countries are likely to work out a revised framework for negotiations at a senior official level meeting in Geneva early next year.

According to official sources here, this is being done to meet the deadlines in various sectors for completion of the Doha Development Agenda.

These sources told Dawn on Thursday that all the trade ministers of G-21 countries were meeting in the capital city of Brazil on Friday to develop consensus on various issues before they were discussed during the forthcoming meeting at senior official level in Geneva in January 2004.

Pakistan’s permanent ambassador to WTO, Dr Manzoor Ahmed will represent Islamabad in place of Commerce Minister, Humayun Akhtar Khan.

The coalition of G-21 developing countries emerged at the sidelines of Cancun ministerial conference in Mexico in September last as a pressure group to lobby against agricultural subsidies in the developed countries and other issues unfavourable to developing countries.

According to the official sources, some of the moderate members of G-21 have asked for making their earlier stand on various issues more flexible.

The G-21 developing countries came up with their own version of a framework for negotiations on agriculture at Cancun as a counter proposal to the one championed by the United States and the European Union.

It also proposed elimination of export subsidies with an earlier deadline for products of interest to developing countries than for other commodities. They proposed a formula for tariff cuts that would force developed countries to do more than developing countries.

The officials said that the developing countries were asking the developed countries to do all by providing more market access to their agriculture and non-agriculture products, while in return they were not willing to give any access to the products of the developed countries.

This hard position of some of the G-21 developing countries was questioned by the other member countries who opted for some moderate position to get the negotiation back on the track following the failure of the Cancun ministerial conference.

The moderate members of the G-21 were of the opinion that besides agriculture they should expand their canvas of negotiations to other sectors as well.

The active members of G-21 includes-Brazil, India, China, Pakistan, Cuba, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Thailand, South Africa and Venezuela.