ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: The European Union has linked the agreement on cooperation and development with Pakistan's acceding to the four multilateral conventions on intellectual, industrial and commercial property rights.

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Thursday that the most striking conditionality of the agreement was that by the end of the fifth year following the coming into force the agreement, Pakistan should accede to these conventions to which member states were parties or which were de facto applied by member states.

According to the relevant provisions, these conventions were: the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property; the Madrid Agreement concerning the International Registration of Marks; the Protocol relating to the Madrid Agreement concerning the International Registration of Marks and Patent Cooperation Treaty.

Pakistan was also bound under the agreement to take all necessary steps to improve the conditions for adequate and effective protection and enforcement of intellectual, industrial and commercial property rights in conformity with international standards.

According to a copy of the agreement made available to Dawn, Pakistan and the European Union would also identify non-tariff barriers along with cooperation to develop and diversify the two-way trade to improve market access for their products under the new trade pact.

The pact says that the parties should seek to work towards the elimination of barriers to trade and implement measures to improve transparency, in particular through timely removal of non-tariff barriers in accordance with work done in this connection by the WTO.

The pact also focussed on trade and commercial relations; development cooperation; environmental cooperation; economic cooperation; industry and services; agriculture, livestock and fisheries; tourism; energy; regional cooperation; cooperation in science and technology; drug precursor chemicals and money laundering; human resource development; information, culture and communication and institutional aspects.

The federal cabinet has approved the agreement on cooperation and development between Pakistan and the EU. The EU parliament has recently ratified the pact with Pakistan.

Pakistan and the EU had started negotiations on the pact in April 1996, which concluded in the year 1998. The accord was initialled in April 1998 but signed in October 2001.