1. MGT601 SME MANAGEMENT

2. WTO Ministerial Conferences
Lesson 40
WTO Ministerial Conferences

3. Chapter Learning Objectives
This Lecture deals with
WTO Ministerial Conferences
Doha Development Agenda
Sector- Specific Commitments
Horizontal Commitments of Pakistan

4. WTO Ministerial Conferences
The apex body of WTO, the Ministerial conferences has a mandate to meet at least once every two years in order to strengthen the political guidance of WTO and enhance the prominence and credibility of its rules.
The Ministerial Conference can take decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements.

5. First Ministerial Conference
held in Singapore 1996 declared the information technology as tariff free till the year 200. It emphasized the importance of regional trade agreements and talked about further liberalization of services. It was unable to resolve the controversies on issues like link between trade and labour standards.

6. Second Ministerial Conference
held in Geneva on implementation issues, discussed the US and EU demand of making E-Commerce tariff free.

7. Third Ministerial Conference
held in Seattle was disrupted by violent protests by anti-globalization organizations and conference failed to follow its proposed agenda.

8. Fourth Ministerial Conference
convened at Doha in 2001 agreed to launch a new round of talks under the ‘Doha Development Agenda’ to take into account the areas of interest of developing countries.

9. Fifth Ministerial Conference
held in Cancún, Mexico from 10 to 14 September The main task was to take stock of progress in negotiations and other work under the Doha Development Agenda.

10. Sixth Ministerial Conference
was held in Hong Kong, China, 13–18 December In general, ministerial conferences are the WTO’s highest decision-making body, meeting at least once every two years and providing political direction for the organization.

11. Doha Development Agenda
Doha Round of negotiations include critical issues such as production subsidies to Agriculture, TRIPs/Geographical Indications, access to generic medicines in case of public health crisis, requests/offers for services sector, antidumping agreement, revision and dispute settlement negotiations, market access to nonagricultural products. Special and Differential treatment of developing countries.

12. Pakistan and WTO
Pakistan being the founding member of GATT, the predecessor of WTO, accepted all the Uruguay Round agreements and is in the process of implementing them. It is modifying its domestic legal and administrative rules so as to make them consistent with WTO rules. Under these agreements Pakistan has to open up its market for full blown foreign competition, must have stringent enforcement of Intellectual property laws and maintain international quality standards.

13. Continued….
Pakistan committed to bind 33% of its tariff lines. Approximately 81% of agricultural import tariffs are bound, most at the ceiling rate of 100%. Tariffs on Tea, wheat, maize and sugar are bound at ceiling rate of 150%. For the Industrial products are bound at 25% of its tariff, most at ceiling rate of 40-50%. For these products, tariff reductions were to take place in five equal installments beginning in July 1995.

14. General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)
Pakistan has participated in GATS negotiations, but did not undertake extensive commitments. Pakistan signed the second protocol to the GATS that pertains to financial services, which apply to insurance, banking and other financial services.

15. Continued….
Pakistan’s schedule of specific commitments consists of both;
Sector-specific commitments
Horizontal commitments.

16. Sector- Specific Commitments
The Sector- Specific Commitments cover 47 activities within the business, communications, construction/engineering, health, financial and tourism/travel services.

17. Continued….
The GATS agreement recognizes 12 main sectors for the purpose of classification of services are as follows.
1. Communication.
2. Financial.
3. Construction/Engineering.
4. Health.

18. Continued… 5. Tourism/travel. 6. Distribution. 7. Education.
8. Environment.
9. Recreation/culture.
10. Sporting.
11. Transport.
12. Others.

19. Horizontal Commitments of Pakistan
The Horizontal Commitments of Pakistan, that is, commitments that apply to all sectors, relate to “commercial presence” or “presence of natural person”. Pakistan’s commitments regarding “commercial presence” are subject to incorporation in Pakistan with maximum foreign equity of 51% unless different percentage is inscribed against a particular sector or sub-sector.

20. Thanks you
Happy Learning,
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