LAHORE, Oct 20: The Punjab Economic and Social Policy Planning Cell Chairman and Adviser on World Trade Organisation, Inamul Haq, says the general exceptions under the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) are of great practical importance for a country like Pakistan which has chosen to make the international trade an instrument of economic growth and poverty alleviation.

Inaugurating a one-day workshop on ‘Exceptions applicable to free trade under the WTO’ at the planning and development department here on Saturday, he said the role of WTO for Pakistan’s economy required to be examined dispassionately and exceptions embodied in Article-XX of GATT required to be used to optimise the opportunities offered by the trade liberalising regime and cope with the challenges emanating from the system.

He said the main objective of the WTO regime was to help international trade flow smoothly, freely, fairly and predictably and its rules had led to a rapid expansion of world trade. Pakistan had also gained market access for its products to developed countries under the WTO regime. There had, however, been certain significant exceptions such as labour intensive and agricultural products.

He said there had been a drastic reduction in tariffs of developed countries from high double digit figures in 1947 to low and single digit numbers today (an average of three per cent on imports). There had also been a significant reduction in trade barriers as a result of liberalisation brought by the GATT/WTO system and a sustained growth of export earnings of Pakistan.

He said the country’s economy was facing new challenges in the highly competitive world in which it was no longer possible for industrialists to earn rents. They should rather earn reasonable profits and increase their productivity and competitiveness. Equally important was the need for producing quality goods and conforming to international standards.

He said one could be worried about human, animal and plant life or health hazards due to liberal imports from other countries under the WTO regime. Similarly it should also be possible to take protective measures to conserve the environment under the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreements and Agreements on Technical Barriers to Trade.

“At the same time if the protectionists from other countries tried to use WTO provisions to obstruct the legitimate trade we should be in a position to protect our interests by invoking the WTO rules,” Mr Haq said.

Convener of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Standing Committee on WTO, Akbar Sheikh, said world trade growth rate had increased to 10 per cent against GDP growth rate of four to five per cent owing to lifting of international trade barriers under the WTO regime.

He was of the view that with the share of developing countries in the world trade exceeding 50 per cent, the developed ones might adopt protectionist policies to prevent their share in global share from shrinking.

WTO Consultant Ms.Hannah Irfan said non-discrimination between the trading partners in imposition of taxes and duties on imports and exports was the basic principle of WTO.

No WTO member country could treat its domestic goods more favourably than the imported ones. Trade remedy laws like imposition of anti-dumping duty were to be used for safeguarding the domestic industry from unfair competition. Anti-dumping duty was levied on producers of goods and not the countries.