HONG KONG, Dec 12: Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan said here on Monday that 15 members of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), including Pakistan had already ratified a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) which would be fully operational in 10 years.

Presiding over a consultative meeting of OIC members on the eve of the 6th WTO ministerial conference, the minister hoped that the recently negotiated PTA would increase trade within OIC members from a low figure of 13 per cent to at least double that volume.

He said the agreement would be implemented in three stages for tariff reduction so that finally a zero-rate tariff was reached. In the first stage, the minister said around seven per cent tariff reduction would be effected and asked the OIC member states who had not yet ratified the agreement to sign it at the earliest.

The minister urged the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to assist financially weaker countries in the process of adopting the PTA and asked the member countries to ratify the agreement at the earliest as this would bring them closer in trade and other areas of interest. The consultative meeting was organized by the IDB.

Mr Humayun Akhtar said the basic objective of the OIC and its specialized organization, the IDB, was to promote economic and commercial cooperation among Islamic states. Realizing the importance and role of the WTO and the Doha Round, the bank had been actively organizing workshops and brainstorming sessions on WTO’s key agenda items.

“I understand that this year they held successful brainstorming meetings for WTO ambassadors and other delegates in Geneva, Istanbul and OIC headquarters in Jeddah.” The fact that its dedicated conference on trade facilitation in Jeddah on Sept 27 and 28 this year was attended by over 40 countries and all relevant international organizations appreciated the professional work of the bank.

The minister pointed out that this consultative meeting carried a lot of importance as views would be exchanged which were going to be taken up at the WTO conference which was also crucial because the Doha Round had to be concluded by the end of next year for the growth and improvement of the world economy.