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1994-05-09
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<text>
<title>
Pakistan: GATT 'Short-Changed' Third World
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Foreign Broadcast Information Service, December 17, 1993
Pakistan: GATT 'Short-Changed' Third World
</hdr>
<body>
<p> [Editorial: "Flawed GATT Deal"]
</p>
<p> [Text] In a statement yesterday Director General GATT Peter
Sutherland informed a waiting world that 117 countries have
reached agreement on a world trade which he said would mean more
trade, more investment, more jobs and larger income. Though the
formal ratification and fine details will take another year or
two, the framework and general guidelines have been worked out.
For a long time the world economy has been moving towards global
specialization but national interests and special lobbies have
been placing hurdles in the way of free trade. Though
protectionism was profitable to a group of industries, consumers
all over the world have suffered a great deal due to restrictive
trade practices of many major powers of the world. In general,
if the GATT has a smooth implementation, tariffs on trade will
come down by 40 percent in its first phase. The extent of burden
on consumers could be judged from the price of rice in Japan's
domestic market which has varied between four to six times
higher than the world prices in the past decade. In the short
term there are bound to be closures and loss of jobs in some
areas, but eventually all the world will benefit as the global
trade will increase by 200 billion dollar as a result of GATT
deal.
</p>
<p> Although we welcome the Agreement in principle, we regret
to say that the Third World Countries have been short-changed.
Once again they have become victims of double standards and
selective application of the principle of free trade. The
narrow, selfish approach of the industrialised nations as well
as their inability to look beyond the immediate present has
caused serious flaws in the Agreement which does not bode well
for the future of free trade. While industrial nations want the
developing countries to open up their markets to the capital
goods in which they have comparative advantage, they have
refused to allow free access to the manufactured goods of the
Third World countries in order to give protection to indigenous
production. We are specially referring here to textile quotas
which will continue to operate and will not be subjected to
provisions of GATT. That makes non-sense of the idea of free
trade and is a blatant act of injustice towards the developing
nations who are already suffering from balance of payment
problem due to shrinking exports. Half of the total exports of
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and large share of Indian and
Pakistani exports consist of textile goods. While our markets
will be flooded with Western durables, our manufactured goods
will not be sold there due to Western barriers.
</p>
<p> We do not believe that industrial nations of the world dare
not aware of the disadvantages the deal has for less developed
economies. Their bully boy tactics are based on the cynical
calculation that these countries are in extremely weak position
and cannot stand up to western pressure or risk isolation. Well,
if that is not a from of colonialism, we do not know how to
describe it. It is salutary to remind the myopic world powers
that the fate of all nations of the world is inextricably linked.
Further impoverishment of the Third World will limit its ability
to buy goods from the technologically advanced countries. Their
insolvency and rising debts will undermine the financial
institutions of the West, and in the end whatever gains the
world has made through GATT, will be canceled by the depressed
economies of the Third World countries.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>