. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(03)/ST/18
11 September 2003
(03-4754)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fifth Session
Cancún, 10 - 14 September 2003Original:  English
PAKISTAN
Statement by H.E. Mr. Humayun Akhtar Khan
Minister for Commerce
It is a great honour for me to be here today and to have the opportunity to speak to such
an august gathering.  At this half-way mark on way to completion of the Doha Agenda, this
Conference will serve us a good purpose if we are able to critically examine whether our work sofar is on target and if not, how to bring it back on track.
It is obvious that there is a stalemate and because of this situation, we are already seeing
serious cracks appearing in the multilateral trading system.  As a result, bilateral and regional
trading arrangements (RTAs) are proliferating.  At the same time a large number of countries,particularly low income developing countries, are being left out and are getting marginalized.
We have to get the multilateral trading system working to ensure that the trading system works
for all.  If we want to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, we have to translate rhetoric
into reality and recommit ourselves towards the Development Agenda we agreed at Doha.
At this half-way stage, the only notable achievement relates to TRIPS and Public Health.
Indeed, this was a historic and significant accord.  Apart from this, the results so far do not seemto be very promising either in terms of ambition or development goals.  We have missed all the
deadlines and there seems to be a deadlock in several areas of developmental value to the
developing countries.  No modalities of negotiations have been agreed in market access
areas such as agriculture or industrial goods.  We only have draft frameworks, which give no
idea as to what could eventually be achieved.
For example, if we take  agriculture, an agreement on timetable and agenda for setting up
of modalities for negotiations was to be agreed on by the end  of March 2003.  Six months after
the deadline what we have is a disputed framework agreement which is quite low on ambition.
There are hardly any significant commitments on reduction of trade distorting domestic support,elimination of export subsidies or any meaningful market access.  This impasse is having serious
repercussions on all other areas of our negotiations.
For industrial goods, the problem is less complicated.  Developed countries have low
tariffs except on goods of export interest to low income developing countries.  It was expectedthat they would be able to agree on modalities, which reduce their tariffs on such products while
allowing some protective tariffs to developing countries for their emerging industries.
Unfortunately major players could not agree to it as they are not willing to agree on any differential
treatment for developing countries.  Therefore, here again we are no better off having missed the
deadlines and being behind schedule by at least six months.  If we are not  to lose more time,
we need to give political guidance which combines ambition with development.WT/MIN(03)/ST/18
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We are making rather slow progress in negotiations for liberalization of services.  We
should be mindful of the fact that potential gains from successful liberalization of trade in
services are huge – far more than those from comparable liberalization of goods.  If we believe in
development and creation of opportunities  for more people to work, we should be more liberal
in allowing movement of natural persons.
Real market access will remain the engine for development.  We should also not forget
the pronounced emphasis in the Doha Declaration on Implementation issues, Special and
Differential Treatment for developing countries and building of capacities to supply.  Other issues
of interest to developing countries such as Trade, Debt and Finance and the Transfer of
Technology are also important and need more focused attention.
Another area of concern is the increasing use of non-tariff barriers and misuse of trade
defences such as anti-dumping and safeguard actions.  There is a serious need to address the non-
tariff barriers and to ensure that trade  remedy laws are not used for protection purposes.
On Singapore issues, the Membership rightly believes that they are already working on a
heavy agenda and their capacity to properly work on creation of new rules and their
implementation is limited.  We  need to be creative and flexible.  The question of expanding the
WTO to include new areas under its rubric needs to be approached in a careful and calibrated
manner while taking into account the sensitivities and reservations of the developing countries.
Let us hope that the Cancun meeting is a watershed for a turnaround of negotiations.  We
all need timely completion of this Development Round, which should meet the ambition and the
goals we had set ourselves.  There are gains for every one of us.  This is the only way that we can
add $400 to $500 billion to global income and boost the income of developing countries by
$150 billion a year in an otherwise gloomy economic environment.  According to a World BankReport, this translates into lifting 144 million people out of poverty.  If we fail, all responsibility for
this loss will rest on us for keeping millions of people poor for many years to come.  Let us not
fail and show some flexibility so that the unique opportunity offered to us through the Doha
Development Agenda is seized now.
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