He said that under Doha Development Agenda (DDA), developed nations are bound to remove quotas for developing nations from a fixed date, and there was no reason for its reversal.
On his return from Geneva, the Minister told a press conference that developing and developed nations have agreed to sign formal agreement on WTO at ministerial level conference to be held in Hong Kong in December 2005.
He said that the recent development on controversial issues of WTO in Geneva was a great achievement of G-20 countries. He said that the WTO was on track and future developments would bring good to all the parties.
Humayun reiterated that post-2004 scenario would help Pakistan capture more share in the international market, like many other developing countries, when subsidies would be non-existent for developed nations, in particular the European Union. He said that Pakistan was in very comfortable position on the issue of WTO since it had taken a number to steps during the last few years to fit in the new regime.
He said that he was satisfied with the performance of G-20 countries, of which Pakistan was a member in Geneva talks. He said that it was the pressure exerted by developing nations, which forced EU and other developed countries to accept hard conditionalities like removal of subsidies from their farm sector.
According to him, subsidies of developed nations, amounting to $1 billion per day for their farm sector, were major cause of blocking exports of developing nations.
Humayun said he was confident that withdrawal of these subsidies would increase prices of developed nations'' products in the international market and subsequently enhance market access for Pakistan and other developing nations.
The minister said that Pakistan''s two key sectors-agriculture and industry-would keep on enjoying special status in post-2004 era for a good number of years. He said his message for these two sectors was that they should make best efforts to improve their quality and service to fit in the new trade world and remain in a comfortable position.
He said that Doha Round, launched in November 2001, was to complete by December 2004. However, negotiations could not make any real progress. He recalled that a ministerial conference, held in October 2003 in Cancun to take stock of the situation and to move the process forward, ended up in a deadlock. However, Geneva negotiations have helped bridge the gap and the breakthrough would help expedite the process for signing of a formal agreement on WTO regime.
The minister said that countries like Pakistan needed multilateral liberalisation of trade to ensure access to major markets for their exports. The most important concessions have been won in agriculture. For cotton, there would be a comparatively fast track approach.
He said that it has also been agreed that tariffs would be cut through a tiered formula: higher the tariff rates, the greater the cut. "Since the richer countries had very high tariffs on products of our export interest, it would mean greater access for us in their markets. The agreement has been negotiated in a way that our farmers would remain protected for the following reasons. Any tariff cuts will apply from the bound rates. Since Pakistan''s bound rates are 100 percent to 150 percent, any reduction from these rates would mean that Pakistan applied rates as at present would remain unaffected."
He said that the government of Pakistan could enhance bound rates whenever needed. According to him, Pakistan would keep on enjoying enough cushion on applied rates in the WTO regime.
The minister said that special and differential treatment has been agreed for developing countries. Under this clause, he said, developing countries can keep a certain number of special products. Such products can remain protected from any substantial tariff cut.