HONG KONG, Dec 13: G-33 states in a declaration issued here on Tuesday stated that placing development at the centre of the round for agriculture must be understood as ensuring real fundamental reform in agricultural trade while addressing issues of concerns to developing countries.

Pakistan, being a member of the group, was represented by a delegation led Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan.

The group reemphasized that a special and differential treatment for developing countries was essential for any WTO agreement and that developing countries should be allowed to designate 20 per cent of their tariff lines of agriculture products as special products, which must have more flexible treatment, including exemption from tariff reduction and new tariff rated quota commitments.

The G-20 declaration highlighted the proposals made in the agriculture negotiations and called for the removal of distortions from agricultural trade, elimination of all forms of export subsidies by 2010 and substantial improvements in market access.

Even before the formal inauguration, negotiators have been working round the clock in different formats. Two developing country groups — G-20 and G-33 — held their respective formal ministerial meetings to finalize proposals.

Earlier, at a seminar organized jointly by the World Bank and the IMF, Humayun Akhtar Khan suggested that a new multilateral fund be set up for the LDCs and low-income countries to cope with any negative consequences or adjustment costs, which might be needed when the Doha Development Agenda is implemented. Others who participated in the seminar included Robert Portman, USTR, Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner, and trade ministers from Denmark, Sweden and Lesotho.