ISLAMABAD, Aug 27: The Sustainable Agriculture Action Group (SAAG) has rejected the draft declaration of the 5th WTO Ministerial Meeting to be held in Cancun in September with the note that its implementation would devastate the agriculture system of Pakistan.

Speaking at a joint press conference, agriculture researcher of ActionAid-Pakistan, Aftab Alam Khan, said they had rejected the draft because it did not address the developmental needs of developing countries like Pakistan.

He said the draft declaration had taken most of its part from the EU-US joint agriculture statement that was released on August 13. The chairman of General Council had released the draft on August 24 in Geneva, which he said, would provide little time to the member countries for including their input in it.

SAAG is a national network of NGOs and farmers organisations working on food security and sustainable agriculture in the country.

According to the analysis, the trade distorting subsidies (Amber Box) would continue in rich countries, as no specific targets had been proposed in the draft. Blue Box subsidies have been proposed to modify.

He said the developed countries wanted to use this disciplining of blue box as a bargaining chip. However, Pakistan should be clear that the rich countries had agreed to reduce their subsidies to a little extent because they had already done their homework to shift blue box subsidies to green box.

Citing an example, he said according to an estimate 75 per cent of EU subsidies would be shifted to green box. Similarly, the United States Farm Bill 2002 had approved around $170 billion of subsidies for the next 10 years.

It is important to note that developing countries, including Pakistan, had demanded complete elimination of blue box and strict restrictions on green box subsidies. These demands are not met in the draft declaration.

The draft proposes a blended approach of Uruguay Round and Swiss Formula for the Market Access. However, there are ample flexibilities for developed countries to pick and choose the products of their interest. Similar loopholes exist in the export competition part of the draft, he added.

On the other hand, the provisions for poor countries are particularly weaker. Developing countries, including Pakistan, had demanded exemption of the products, which were important for the food security, livelihood of small farmers and rural development.