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Pakistan urges US, European Union to regulate tariffs on export items

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has urged the United States and the European Union (EU) to regulate tariffs on export items of the developing countries, substantially reduce their trade-distorting subsidies and provide predictability on rules such as anti-dumping.

Pakistan government has expressed reservations over the partial resumption of negotiations on some issues saying talks should be resumed on the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), it is learnt.

Its reaction came at a time, when some countries including those of EU have tabled a proposal to resume talks on certain undisputed areas of the DDA to break the impasse in the multilateral trade negotiations.

According to official statement submitted to the WTO General Council by Pakistan's Ambassador to WTO Dr Manzoor Ahmed, Islamabad has welcomed the preservation of the progress already achieved as part of the DDA talks.

"We would not be able to support proposals on partial resumption of talks, which claim to promote development. If major economies are indeed keen on doing something for development, we would request them to unilaterally do what the majority of developing countries were asking them to do," Dr Manzoor

informed the general council.

In its reaction to the suspension of trade talks, Pakistan has cautiously reacted saying the indefinite deferment of the Doha Development Agenda negotiations would undermine the credibility of the multilateral trading system.

"We regret that we were so close and yet are not getting there. Unfortunately, certain members who had taken the leadership role were not able to live up to the expectations", the statement said. According to the statement, one obvious result, which was already becoming evident because of the prolongation of the DDA negotiations, was further proliferation of the free trade agreements (FTAs) and regional trade agreements (RTAs) and more destabilisation and marginalisation of the less fortunate countries.

When contacted FPCCI trade expert Mohammed Sulaiman said that in the industrial negotiations, Pakistan was looking forward to reduction in tariffs on textiles and agriculture products. Any resumption of talks, which did not include negotiations on farm and industrial sector, would not be of any substantial benefit to Pakistan's economy.

"We are not happy with this situation and would like the talks to be resumed as early as possible. Partial resumption of talks will not address issues of our concern," he added.