Digging in at Doha

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxx>]

Wednesday November 7 12:47 PM ET

Developing Nations Plan 'Common Front' at WTO
By Raja Asghar

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Wednesday that developing
countries planned to put up a common front at the World Trade
Organization (WTO) summit opening in Doha on Friday.

Commerce Minister Abdul Razzak Dawood told a news conference he hoped
the November 9-13 conference, aimed at launching a new trade round,
would succeed -- unlike the December 1999 Seattle gathering that
failed amid acrimony among delegates and massive anti-globalization
protests. Dawood, who will lead the Pakistan delegation at the Doha
conference, said Islamabad had had discussions about the WTO issues
with other members of the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation, other developing countries, Islamic countries and D-8
group of developing countries.

``So the developing countries have a got a common viewpoint and, God
willing, we should be able to put up a common front and protect our
interests,'' he said.

At the news conference, Dawood made no mention or refer to news on
Wednesday of a gun attack on an airbase in Qatar used by U.S.
warplanes. Ministers from the WTO's 142 member states are due to meet
in the Qatari capital of Doha from November 9-13.

Qatari security forces shot dead a Qatari man who opened fire earlier
in the day at the Udeid airbase some 40 km (25 miles) south of Doha.
The U.S. embassy said some Americans were wounded in the attack on the
base.

The WTO's chief Mike Moore said in Doha the gun attack was not related
to the grouping's meeting and he did not believe the incident would
affect the conference.

Dawood said issues to be raised by Pakistan and other developing
countries would include textiles, liberalization of quotas, market
access to their products, their objections to heavy agriculture
subsidies in Western countries, and a demand for extension of a Trade
Related Investment Measures (TRIMS) agreement.

The Western world would be raising issues such as competition,
investment, environment and labor policies, whose non-implementation
by the developing countries could lead to disputes between the two
sides, he said.

He said the developing countries ``don't mind some of these things
coming'' but asks the developed world to be ``a little more liberal in
these issues.''

``We would like an objective discussion with the spirit of trying to
resolve issues rather than creating issues,'' he said.

Dawood said that on the sidelines of the WTO conference he would also
hold bilateral talks with his counterparts from the United States,
Canada, European Union, Japan, China, Turkey, India, Bangladesh and
Australia.

``The sole objective of these bilateral discussion is to try to get
more and more market access for our products,'' he said.

Western countries and Japan have promised to be more sympathetic to
Pakistan's trade and economic concerns after it joined the U.S.-led
coalition against terrorism forged after the devastating September 11
hijack attacks on the United States.