SAARC ministerial meeting in New Delhi to focus on WTO issues

ISLAMABAD-Minister for Commerce, Industries and Production, Abdul Razzak Dawood said Tuesday the SAARC ministerial meeting being held in New Delhi on August 23 will focus on WTO issues vis a vis adopting a common stand at Doha WTO ministerial conference in November next.

"The agenda of this meeting is to primarily focus on WTO matters to promote understanding among the SAARC member countries in this regard besides forging common strategy to deal with WTO issues", he said while talking to mediamen here prior to his departure for New Delhi enroute Karachi on August 21, 2001.

The Minister said, he was going to attend this meeting on the invitation of SAARC Secretary in which the issue related to WTO regime will be discussed in detail. "We are entering the final phase of WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in Doha on November 9, as prelude we are having meetings in various parts of the world."

In this respect, Razzak Dawood informed that the SAARC meeting in New Delhi will follow meetings in Geneva, Mexico nd Uruguay to take a position before Doha meeting.

To a question, the Minister said, the main focus of the SAARC ministerial meeting in New Delhi is to identify various issues relating to WTO regime like implementation, procedures, environment, labour etc.

The Commerce Minister in response to yet another query ruled out the possibility of separate meeting with his Indian counterpart on the issue of increasing bilateral trade by saying "the agenda of his visit is to discuss WTO issues."

To another question regarding the quantum of bilateral trade between Pakistan and SAARC countries, the Minister said, we have a lot of trade with Bangladesh and Srilanka, adding, however, our informal trade with India is much more than formal trade.

The Minister in response to a question said, similar meetings were also held in 1999 prior to WTO Seatle meeting. It may be mentioned here that this meeting is being hosted by India aiming at forging a common stand at Doha WTO conference of trade ministers to be held in November next.

Commerce secretaries of five SAARC member countries will gather a day ahead of the ministerial conference on August 22, at the preparatory meeting.

Federal commerce secretary Mirza Qamar Baig has already left for New Delhi for this purpose The ministerial meeting grouping India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and The Maldives will issue a joint statement after the conclusion of the meeting on August 23.

Nepal and Bhutan are not participating in the meeting as being not members of the World Trade Organisation.

The SAARC commerce ministers and secretaries will be guests at a dinner to be hosted in their honour by the SAARC chamber of commerce on August 22 whereas the Indian commerce minister Murasoli Maran will host a lunch for them on August 23.

The ministerial meeting will start with a 45-minute plenary session. Thereafter two closed door sessions will be held.

The commerce ministers will come out with a joint statement after the second and concluding session.

The present meeting of the SAARC ministers is an offshoot of the discussions held by foreign secretaries of South Asian countries at Colombo.

It was instrumental in setting up a meeting of trade ministers of the five SAARC countries, which are members of WTO to discuss Doha Conference Agenda which is slated from November 9 to 13.

In the WTO headquarters in Geneva, Like-minded Group (LMG) including India and Pakistan has been coordinating the positions of some two dozen developing countries on a range of WTO issues of vital interests to them.

The countries have taken a common position on the implementation issues relating to the asymmetries and imbalances in the current WTO agreements concluded in 1994 after the 8-year long Uruguay round of trade negotiations.

Pakistan has now taken the initiative to hold a meeting of the trade ministers of the LMG countries in Geneva in September to further coordinate their positions ahead of November 9-13 Doha WTO ministerial conference.

Pakistan and India share common position with regard to liberalisation of world trade in agriculture and textile, the two sectors of vital importance to both their economies.