WTO asked for level-playing field in agri products trade

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) to provide a level-playing field in the field of agriculture products trade.

“Agriculture is our lifeline, millions of poor farmers expect a fair deal from global trading system,” federal commerce secretary Mohammad Younus Dagha said, while addressing the meeting of Cairns Group Ministers, which met on the sidelines of the World Trade Organization ministers in Morocco.

Cairns Group is the World Trade Organization coalition of like-minded countries, demanding reform of agriculture subsidies.

Dagha said that trade distorting subsidies’ of the developed countries are tilting the terms of trade drastically against the poor farmers of the developing countries. Huge amounts of domestic support in large agriculture producing countries and their public stockholding also affected the small farmers by taking away the market share and depressing international prices for their products, he said.

Countries frequently veil their programmes of public stockholding, as food security initiatives, which hurt other developing countries and agriculture producers in the international market, Dhaga added.

The commerce secretary is leading a Pakistani delegation at the crucial World Trade Organization meeting, which is finalising the strategy for the forthcoming ministerial meeting in Bunes Aires to Geneva.

Dagha also met Chinese trade minister, World Trade Organization director general Roberto Azevado, ministers of Norway, Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and delegations of Chile, Turkey, US, Argentina and Costa Rica and discussed issues of mutual economic interests.

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