ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is facing a stifling balance-of-payments (BoP) crisis and is trying very hard to grapple with the situation both economically and socially, Minister for Commerce Naveed Qamar told the 12th World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference (MC12) in Geneva.

Mr Qamar is representing Pakistan at the MC12, which is being held from June 12-15 in Switzerland. The conference was due to take place in late 2021, but was postponed due to the outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

The commerce minister informed the conference that the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath have unleashed a wave of further difficulties and challenges for Pakistan. The minister read out a written statement to present Pakistan’s position, a copy of which was released to the media.

Coupled with the economic dent caused by the pandemic and the looming food crisis, he said the issue led to significant ‘turmoil in my country’.

“At the same time, I believe that we should focus on building back better and smarter,” he added.

For this, the minister suggested that he finds it absolutely essential that effective policy space remains available to countries like Pakistan to advance modern digital, technological, and industrial growth.

Food security is looming large as yet another major challenge, particularly for countries like Pakistan, he said. The issue will, if it is not already, confront this organisation and its members more starkly in the coming days, he added.

The minister said Pakistan believes that in order to ensure food security across the globe, the appropriate policy tools must remain available to members, particularly those necessary to enhance production, productivity, and dissemination of food to wider segments of the population.

Pakistan has always remained an active member of the WTO. “We believe firmly in the benefits of upholding the fundamentals of the Multilateral Trading System, especially at a time when it is facing some of its biggest challenges both to this organisation and to the concept of multilateralism as we have long understood it,” Mr Qamar further said.

He reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment, in any reforms we make, to the strengthening of the pillars that underpin the multilateral system, particularly of consensus-based decision-making; the continued emphasis on development, including special and differential treatment for developing countries, and a fully functional two-tiered dispute settlement system.

The official announcement of the Ministry of Commerce said that Mr Qamar stressed the need for the WTO to uphold the foundational pillars of the Marrakech Agreement of consensus-based decision making, special and differential treatment for developing countries, and a fully functional two-tier dispute settlement mechanism.

The minister stressed the need for large subsidisers to take the biggest responsibility for saving fish under the common but differentiated responsibility principle.

On the sidelines, Mr Qamar also highlighted the need for a solution to the rising problems of food security and agriculture productivity in G33 and Cairns Group Ministerial Meetings.

The minister in the country’s position paper highlighted emerging realities such as environmental degradation, high inflation, widening inequality, and food scarcity, coupled with the severe inequity in Covid vaccine availability, and a general lack of diagnostic and therapeutic capacities, have exacerbated the severity of these challenges in the developing world.

Published in Dawn,June 14th, 2022