Press Release
Commerce Minister meets Director General of the WTO
Geneva – 12 October, Mr. Humayun Akhtar Khan, Commerce Minister
of Pakistan had a bilateral discussion with Mr. Pascal Lamy, the
Director General of WTO in his office in Geneva. Syed Asif Shah,
Secretary Commerce, Government of Pakistan and Dr. Manzoor
Ahmad, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the WTO were also present. The
Director General WTO, welcoming the honorable Minister for his visit to
Geneva at the most crucial time before the Honk Kong Ministerial
meeting, conveyed his condolence for the earthquake victims of
Pakistan and shared his feelings of sorrows with the nation and the
people of Pakistan.
While briefing the Minister, Pascal Lamy informed about the
sensitivities attached to the WTO negotiations, where most negotiating
blocks were playing a game of hide and seek and over-dramatizing the
negotiations. Not quite sure of the Hong Kong outcome, he considered
Hong Kong meeting very important to move the Doha Development
Round forward. Failing which, he feared that the negotiations might
lose sense of direction and commitment. The period remaining to
complete this round, he explained, was “simply incompressible”, and
members had to move fast to catch the train.
Commerce Minister, commenting on Pakistan’s position, stressed on
the importance being attached to agriculture, non-agriculture, services
as well as rules negotiations at the WTO. He gave a run down of the
latest G-20 position on the agriculture, Pakistan’s proposal on NAMA
and our liberal commitments in the services sector, which gathered a
great amount of support from the membership. Mr. Lamy, being
appreciative of Pakistan’s efforts, however informed that the other
major players were rather slow in responding to such moves from the
developing countries. He applauded the role of Pakistan as a serious
stakeholder and agreed to the fact that agriculture breakthrough was
most essential at this stage, to generate interest in other areas of
negotiations like NAMA and services. The success of this round, he
suggested will depend on a timely consensus on the modalities in
agriculture; and a general agreement on the formulae, flexibilities and
unbound tariffs in NAMA. Commenting on Minister’s interest in the
movement of natural persons under Mode IV of services, Mr. Lamy
informed that there were still serious reservations from some
developed countries due to their domestic immigration legislations,
thus an ambitious result in this regard was not very probable in
immediate future.
The Minister extended his invitation to Mr. Lamay to visit Pakistan, to
which he immediately agreed and announced to be in Islamabad on
17th of November this year. Before winding up discussion, the Director
General of WTO paid special tributes to Ambassador Manzoor Ahmad
of Pakistan, stating him to be “one of the solid pillars of Geneva based
delegations”.
The meeting followed a short and focused television interview of the
Minister on how Pakistan feels about the significance of Hong Kong
Ministerial meeting being held in December this year. The Minister
responded that Pakistan is always in the forefront when it comes to
addressing the development concerns of the developing countries
through a fairer and transparent multi-lateral trading system. He
informed that Pakistan attached a great importance to the market
access issues related to agriculture, NAMA as well as services. He said
that his country was willing to contribute in any way possible to move
the Hong Kong process forward and making the Doha development
round a success.