Mr. Roberto Azevedo Director General World Trade Organization in his meeting with the Minister for Commerce and at the joint press conference said that:
The business environment in Pakistan is improving which is essential for economic growth and my visit will air this message to the world in most unequivocal terms.
Developing countries can also initiate their development proposals in the WTO and discussed this aspect with Pakistani leadership to take initiative in floating new proposals.
WTO will help to enhance Pakistan’s export capacity through its Aid for Trade initiative by adding value to the products, training people and providing support in exploring new markets.
Pakistan is improving and maintaining a healthy economic growth and with peace coming to Pakistan the economy will grow further. I am hopeful about the country’s progress.
Pakistan’s ratification of the Trade Facilitation Agreement is greatly appreciated. Many other countries are also entering the TFA.
One of the purposes of the visit is to identify the areas where Pakistan needs technical assistance in trade development, trade negotiations, production methods and standardization.
In exports, Pakistan is working to take qualitative jumps. It is focusing on competitiveness, diversification and lowering the costs of trade.
Trade Facilitation Agreement alone will lower the transaction cost of Pakistani companies to trade by 30%.
Agriculture is an area of high priority and agriculture subsidies by developed and developing countries are continuously discussed and debated at WTO. Export subsidies are eliminated in the recently held tenth WTO Ministerial in Nairobi.
During the bilateral meeting with the DG WTO and the joint press conference the Minister for Commerce said that:
The visit of the Director General of World Trade Organization Mr. Roberto Azevedo to Pakistan is an expression of interest and trust of the management of the leading economic institutions of the world in the policies pursued by Pakistan.
Pakistan’s engagement has deepened in the negotiations going on in the WTO as Pakistan played a leading role in the meetings held in Paris, Kenya and Davos. Pakistan was the only country from SAARC region which participated in the ministerial meeting of Davos.
Pakistan signed the Trade Facilitation Agreement of WTO and is playing a positive role through its diplomatic efforts for facilitation of world trade. In line with international commitments, Pakistan will constitute a national Trade Facilitation Committee in the near future.
In the Nairobi Ministerial, Pakistan worked with other countries to seek permanent solution beneficial to all the participating countries. Pakistan emphatically share the imperative to feed the hungry and assist the vulnerable but not at the cost of livelihood of millions of poor subsistence farmers.
Pakistan stands with the world community for a positive and progressive outcome in the MC-11 next year particularly for developing countries.
The Minister for Commerce expressed his gratitude to the DG over the technical assistance provided by the WTO to Pakistan particularly on SPS measures and capacity building.
Pakistan is planning a project to enhance export competitiveness in agriculture particularly in the mango and citrus sector for which it may look forward to technical assistance at the appropriate time.
Working on E-commerce framework to help support the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Pakistan to sell their products globally. This is an endeavor to strengthen small businesses in the country and provide them the best value for their products.
Some facts about Pakistan’s engagement in WTO
Pakistan is a founding member of the WTO and continues to support an open, transparent and rules-based multilateral trading system. Pakistan is an active participant in the negotiations of Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and believes that trade imbalances will be minimized through a fast and successful outcome of the DDA.
Pakistan’s key market interests lie in seeking better market access under the Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA), agriculture and services.
Pakistan is an NFIDC (net food importing developing country). Tariff reduction, early elimination of of all forms of export subsidies and substantial reduction of trade-distorting domestic support will bring significant improvements in market access for agriculture products. With a view to achieving these objectives, Pakistan is closely allied with the coalition groups like G20, Cairns Group and G33 within WTO.
In services, Pakistan has a liberal applied regime that goes even beyond General Agreement on Trade in Service (GATS) commitments and it wishes to seek similar market access opportunities from other countries.
Pakistan is engaged in plurilateral and bilateral negotiations in services negotiations such as TiSA (Trade in Service Agreement) and fully supports endeavors at all levels for ambitious outcomes in the services sector.
Finally, Pakistan is also conducting stake-holder consultations for exploring the possibility of acceding to plurilateral Information Technology Agreement (ITA).
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