ISLAMABAD, Nov 26: The World Trade Organization has urged the government to make ISO-9000 certification compulsory "for all the country's commercial produce" failing which Pakistan's exports could face declining trends in the coming years.

Informed sources told Dawn that in case Pakistan did not implement the requirements of WTO and South Asia Free Trade Agreement (Safta) to ensure quality of commercial items, its exports could decline.

However, they said the government would meet the WTO and Safta requirements by shortly establishing an "analytical centre" at a cost of Rs200 million. About Rs175 millions were expected to be contributed by some international agencies to help set up this centre.

The sources said that in order to cope with the arising issues and challenges of WTO and Safta, a comprehensive infrastructure was required. Therefore, it is the utmost need of the time to establish a research cell equipped with the latest hi-tech instruments, run by highly qualified and experienced people and supported by a skill repair and maintenance group capable of certifying the quality control of commercial products with precision and accuracy.

With the enhancement of industrial applications in versatile spheres, the imperativeness of decoding samples and quality control led to the utilization of advanced and hi-tech and analytical instruments. The speedy pace of marketing also needs all the technical aids under one roof with the highest reliability.

In addition, the sources said, the awareness of public demands the certification of commercial products for quality control and quality assurance purposes. "Country's industries and scientific organizations need an accurate and speedy analysis of their products for quality assurance purposes along with technical guideline."

The proposed centre is also aimed at providing help to universities' professors/supervisors of PhD, MPhil and MSc, students and various organizations of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and to industrial sphere on commercial basis.

It will also extend help/guidance to overcome the obstacle encountered in various technical ventures at the country-level and across the boundaries in the years to come.

New trends in the free trade concept also compel the local industry to modify and improve their products. The forthcoming WTO and Safta agreements strongly urge the necessity of quality assurance and the certification can be obtained only after the proper reinforcing of analytical data by a well-organized pool of modern technologies and highly-qualified trained manpower.

"And that is why the government has decided to have a certain certifying agency with complete infrastructure in order to meet various challenges arising out of WTO and other international organizations' demands," a source said.