UNITED NATIONS, Feb 15 (APP): Pakistan has called for key trade reforms that would make markets more efficient, increase efficiency and promote sustainable development.
“We parliamentarians have the responsibility to look after our people by working towards ending poverty and hunger, ensuring healthy lives and quality education, combating climate change and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions,” Muhammad Riaz Fatyana, a member of the Pakistan National Assembly, told the Annual Parliamentary Hearing, a joint initiative of the President of UN General Assembly (UNGA) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
He said those goals could only be achieved through international trade and export-led growth that ensures a higher level of economic growth.
In this regard, Fatayana proposed the following measures:
— Reforming the World Trade Organization, an intergovernmental organization that regulates international trade, in particular on dispute settlement, to resolve the Appellate Body crisis in the WTO;
— Revising Investment agreements to limit the power of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms and introducing transparency clauses;
— Scaling down trade barriers, for example, by lobbing for removal of non-tariff barriers imposed on developing countries exports;
Fatyana also highlighted the challenges that developing countries face in pursuing traditional export-led growth, such as market volatility, increasing global competition, and rising protectionism. To overcome these obstacles, he outlined the following strategies:
— Support for export diversification by shifting towards value-added exports;
— Upgrading infrastructure by incorporating climate resilience and building ports, digital networks and logistics hubs;
— Promoting regional integration, and,
— Reducing foreign exchange rate pressures by encouraging the barter system and trade in local currencies; and lastly;
In conclusion, Fatyana reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to working with international partners to promote an equitable and sustainable global trade system.