KARACHI – Third session of the World Trade Organisation (TWO), to be held on Monday, to discuss trade concessions to Pakistan is likely to prove fruitless as WTO is yet to develop a consensus on this burning issue. Countries, which had earlier objected the EU, continue to express reservations and so nothing positive is expected in the forthcoming session of WTO, sources told Pakistan Today. Similar to the previous session, held on January 31, 2011, the next session would also fail to make any break through, as neither the EU member countries nor Pakistan had succeeded in convincing opposing countries of the additional autonomous trade preferences to Pakistan, they added. Resultantly, sources claimed that trade, as per the announced facility, would not begin with EU countries by next month. EU had earlier hoped that the facility would be provided to Pakistan by April 2011.
According to experts, the Indo-Pak dialogue must be held frequently to convince India over the EU concession as opposition from the neighbouring country means no positive results in the WTO. However, the cold response from India despite request through diplomatic channels was likely to cause further delay in the start of the duty free trade and WTO would again postpone the session in the absence of consensus. Earlier, in a statement submitted in the WTO on January 31, EU had said that it was still consulting with some members, expressing systemic or economic concerns regarding its request for a waiver on trade preferences to Pakistan. The EU report, submitted in the Council for Trade in Goods, said that it would submit the report on the results of these consultations at the next meeting.
However, as some members of the organisation including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Peru and others had started to show their positive gesture towards the EU trade facility to Pakistan through waiver of WTO rules – the move should be implemented by EU before the next WTO meeting. The union, sources said, should seriously approach India to drop its opposition to a limited, three-year concession to Pakistan on tariffs. The European Union, at a meeting of the Council for Trade in Goods on November 30, 2010 had requested a waiver on trade preferences to help the country recover from floods, last July-August, that affected some 20 million people.However, sources in the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) hoped that the India might be convinced during the visit of Indian secretary commerce to Pakistan, expected next month.
