WT/MIN(15)/ST/67  
21 December 2015  
(15-6798)  Page: 1/2  
Ministerial Conference 
Tenth Session 
Nairobi, 15-18 December 2015  Original: English  
 
STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. KHURRAM DASTGIR KHAN 
FEDERAL MINISTER FOR COMMERCE 
PAKISTAN  
I express my deepest gratitude to the Government  and the people of the Republic of Kenya for 
their generous, warm hospitality as hosts of this Conference.   Having started in Africa, WTO has come back to the Continent after twenty years. This is an 
indication of the positive direction in which Kenya and WTO have advanced. Kenya has 
demonstrated growth as well as regional leadership, while WTO has highlighted its developmental character by holding its first Ministerial Conference on African soil. 
 
I also take this opportunity to felicitate and welcome new fellow members: Liberia and our two esteemed neighbours Kazakhstan and Afghanistan. 
 
WTO as an institution has exhibited institutional strength to bring nations together in ever-increasing numbers to reform their trade procedures and policies towards transparency and openness; and to resolve their conflicts thro ugh a rules-based global trade governance. 
 
The mechanisms of Trade Policy Review and Dispute Resolution are of immense value and need to be further strengthened, especially Dispute Resolution which is facing long queues. 
 
Many of my colleagues have cited the Accord on Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals 2030 as an inspiration for WTO. But we must draw the right lessons from Paris and New 
York. We must distinguish between the urgent and the important. 
 What is important is to prevent retrogressive, Uruguay-minus steps, and work together towards a pro-reform, pro-sustainability and pro-disciplin e transparent outcomes. The future economic 
growth and prosperity of all our peoples depends on it. 
 Pakistan reaffirms the need for enhancing trade opportunities coupled with removing capacity 
constraints faced by developing countries and LDCs so as to facilitate their smooth blending into 
the Global Value Chains.  
We strongly support the reform agenda being stewarded by Cotton-4. Being the 4th largest 
producer of cotton in the world without any trade distorting domestic support, we will be delighted to share our technical know-how and best practices with our C-4 colleagues.  
We renew our pledge to discipline global trade rule s with due deference to prioritizing development 
objectives. Yet we must do so with the recognition that the economic landscape and trade topography of the world has changed considerably since the turn of the century. Technology has 
transformed the speed and quality of information flows, and the ways with which we communicate 
with each other.  
Pakistan shares with fellow members the disappointment that at WTO we have not been able to 
achieve convergence despite the low level of ambiti on on export subsidies on agriculture. We are 
firm in our view that it is not advisable to create any linkage between one element of market 
access pillar with the full pillar of export competition. WT/MIN(15)/ST/67 
 
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  The Public Stockholding proposal in its current form has already had serious and adverse 
unintended consequences for our economy. We share emphatically the imperative to feed the hungry and assist the vulnerable, but not at the cost of livelihoods of millions of poor, subsistence farmers.  
 
Future negotiations on the subject must be ground ed in verifiable data and evidence, and ensure 
that public stockholding does not transgress into trade-distorting export subsidies that hurt 
farmers in other countries. 
 Pakistan will support a robust post-Nairobi work program keeping in view all perspectives of food 
security on the table. 
 
I am delighted to inform this distinguished audience that Pakistan is the first and so far the only country in South Asia to ratify the Trade Facilitation Agreement.  
 
By facilitating regional and international trade, ratification of TFA by other regional economies will supplement vast connectivity benefits of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. 
 
Accelerated movement in Central Asia for WTO accession and TFA ratifications will also produce a fresh stimulus towards achieving Prime Minister Nawa z Sharif’s vision of shared prosperity through 
regional economic integration. 
 
As the first mover in TFA, an ever-more stable , peaceful, democratic, and growing Pakistan is 
poised to be the economic and trade hub for Central Asia and South Asia, and will open new doors 
to the rest of the world. 
 As Forster wrote, “Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted. Live in 
fragments no longer. Only connect.” 
 
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