WTO: Members agree on trade facilitation agreement

Pakistani delegation to participate in Geneva meeting on February 14.


Irshad Ansari February 10, 2011

ISLAMABAD: Member countries of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), including Pakistan, have agreed on a trade facilitation agreement to promote commerce across the world.

A draft of the agreement states that data regarding taxation and other regulations of member countries will not be kept secret anymore.

A four-day meeting of 154 WTO members will be held from February 14 in Geneva to finalise the agreement. A high-level delegation of Pakistan will leave for Switzerland on Saturday to participate in the meeting. According to officials, the delegation will include officials from the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Finance and the Federal Board of Revenue.

Sources disclosed that signatories to the trade facilitation agreement will introduce an advanced ruling system. The trade regime between member countries will be made transparent and an investor from a member country intending to invest in another member country will have full access to taxation rates and other important information.

Investors will have an option to request information and the authorities in the recipient country will be obliged to reply and provide full information about duties levied on investment, manufacturing, import and export. Consequently, taxes or duties that were not disclosed in the reply letter cannot be implemented on business.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11th, 2011.

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