Pakistan’s attempts to revive stalled talks in agriculture: The paper on Special Products
On the 13th of April 2007, Pakistan circulated its paper (JOB 07/46) on modalities for the selection and treatment of Special Products (SP’s) by developing countries. It was discussed on the 25th of April 2007 in the Committee on Agriculture Special Session. This was the first time that such a discussion has taken place since the Round started in 2001 in Doha.
Pakistan is a member of the G20, the Cairns Group and the G33. At the G33 Ministerial meeting in Jakarta held in March 2007, Pakistan’s Commerce Minister outlined Pakistan’s intention to submit a proposal giving some suggestions as to how the genuine interests of developing countries could be protected but at the same time further liberalization was assured as most developing countries have both offensive and defensive interests in agriculture.
The circulation of this paper at the WTO is an attempt to move the stalled talks on agriculture and to provide guidance to the Chair of Agriculture negotiations, Ambassador Crawford Falconer of New Zealand, by providing fresh input and a possible middle ground to resolve the stalemate on the Doha round of talks. Infact, one of the key issues facing trade negotiators in agriculture is the matter of SP’s. It has been Pakistan’s avowed desire to get inputs and convergence from the developing world on this issue unlike the Uruguay round where things were imposed on the developing members as they didn’t have the time or expertise to think through all the implications.
In line with this thinking, Pakistan’s ambassador to the WTO, Dr.Manzoor Ahmad introduced the paper at the Special Session on the 25th.. He explained that the underlying motivation behind the hard work that went into this paper was to respond to the overwhelming desire of the WTO members to restart a genuine multilateral process at Geneva, given that difficulties in agriculture formed the bulwark of problems in the Doha round. He stressed the lack of transparent discussions and inclusiveness in the G 4 discussions which could pose serious threats to finalizing the Round by the end of this year. He then explained the key points of the proposal. These included how indicators could be used for selection of SPs, what kind of a filter should be applied, what incentives should be available for limiting selection of SPs, and how a flexible treatment for tariff cuts could be exercised.
A small group of G33 countries led by India, including the Philippines, South Korea make interventions on various points, nearly half of the G33 members took the floor to offer their criticism of the proposal, the most vocal being Bolivia, Jamaica, Nigeria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Prominent amongst those G33 Members which did not take part in the debate were China and Peru.
On the other hand, a number of countries including Argentina, Australia, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Thailand, Uruguay, felt that being the first to even talk “middle ground” was a courageous step. Brazil, Mexico and some other countries acknowledged the difficulties of G33 countries and at the same time praised the initiative. The United States did not take the floor while the EU asked for clarifications on some aspects of the paper but did not take a position on it.
Pakistan's paper on SP's
Pakistans paper on SP's, simplified
Criticism of Pakistans paper on SP's
