Ladies and gentlemen,

I am delighted to be in Pakistan — especially so as this is my first visit to the country as Director-General of the World Trade Organization.  

I would like to thank the Lahore University of Management Sciences for organizing this event. I am pleased to have the opportunity to interact with you today.

Over the next few minutes I will give my perspective on the state-of-play in the global trading system — and of Pakistan's role within it.

There's no question that we're meeting at a challenging time.

Around the world governments are struggling with a mixed economic outlook and a range of challenges to delivering a return to strong growth. Pakistan is no exception.

The country faces a number of difficulties — particularly in dealing with the effects of instability in the region. This situation has put pressure on the economy, affecting the levels of investment and trade.

Confronted with these challenges, the government has set out some clear steps to invigorate the economy — including through the long term development strategy, enshrined in the 'Vision 2025' plan. As such, you have been undertaking some important reforms, such as upgrades in transport infrastructure and measures to improve the business climate.

Pakistan has also been looking at improving regional connectivity and leveraging its strategic location, through initiatives like the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Overall, these reforms can go a long way to help the recovery of your economy. But of course, this is an ongoing effort. The work to promote growth and development never ends. And looking ahead, I think that trade — and the system of global trade rules supported by the WTO — can be an important ally of Pakistan.

In fact, the WTO and Pakistan have a long history of collaboration.

Pakistan was one of the founding members of the organization, and has been a part of the system of global trade rules for almost 70 years.

As I see it, by creating the WTO and agreeing its legal texts, Pakistan and the other founding members provided the equivalent of a constitution for global trade. That constitution enshrines the basic, perennial principles of trade. It helps to avoid unilateral, discriminatory or arbitrary measures.

Today, the organization has 162 members, at all stages of development. 98% of global trade occurs under this framework of rules.

So what does that mean in practical terms?

On a daily basis, the WTO provides a forum for policy dialogue and information sharing, where members can monitor each other’s practices and regulations to ensure that agreements are being observed. Through the regular work of WTO committees, countries can exchange information, raise concerns and suggest new approaches in many areas.

This may sound technical, but it touches on so many of the things that matter to all of us. How the trading system is run affects the big issues like the health of the economy and its potential to grow, develop and create jobs. But it also affects more everyday issues like the price of goods on the high street, or even the level of chemicals in toys and toxins in food.

And Pakistan is a regular contributor to many of these debates. Your Ambassador in Geneva, Tauqir Shah, is the current chair of the Special Session of the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment, which discusses environmental issues in our negotiations.

Another area of our work, and which frequently makes the headlines, is our dispute settlement system.

This mechanism helps WTO members settle their trade differences in an open and transparent manner. In just 20 years we have successfully dealt with more than 500 trade disputes.

Pakistan has been an active user of this mechanism, having participated in 17 cases in different capacities: as a complainant, respondent and as an interested party.

Pakistanis have also served as experts on such legal panels, offering their knowledge to help solve other disputes between other members.

These activities help countries participate in our discussions in Geneva and improve their ability to trade.

The WTO also provides practical support for countries through a range of initiatives that build capacity and skills.

Pakistan, for example, benefits from Aid for Trade support, which helps countries to boost trade by addressing problems in their trading infrastructure.

Developing and least-developed countries also benefit from a number of provisions which allow them greater flexibility under the rules to help them integrate into, and benefit from, global trade.

So in a nutshell, that's what the WTO is all about.  And I think it's fair to say that the WTO plays a fundamental role in global economic governance.  

And we are looking to do much more in the years to come.

An important part of our work involves negotiating new trade rules — reforming the system so that it can adapt to meet countries' needs. And in the past two and a half years, we have taken some big steps forward.

WTO members have been able to deliver meaningful reforms to global trade rules, which will have a great impact to improve the terms of trade here in Pakistan— and around the world.

Last December, at our last ministerial meeting in Nairobi, members took some very important decisions. 

First, members took the historic decision to abolish agricultural export subsidies. This is the biggest reform in agricultural trade rules in the last 20 years — and a big win for Pakistan.

By eliminating export subsidies, this deal will help to level the playing field in agriculture markets to the benefit of farmers and exporters in Pakistan. Of course, there is much more to do in order to reduce distortions in agricultural markets, but this is a major step forward. Especially given that Pakistan is not entitled to provide these kinds of subsidies.

In fact, eliminating these subsidies was actually one element of the UN's new Sustainable Development Goals — so it is a big achievement that we delivered this, just three months after the goals were agreed!

Second, members pledged to negotiate in the next two years a decision on public stockholding of grains for food security purposes. And they made a commitment to negotiate a mechanism allowing developing countries to shield local farmers from import surges of food products which can harm domestic production.

Regarding the public stockholding question, it is important to note that these programmes must be designed in a way that does not affect third countries.

Third, members agreed a package of measures to support least-developed countries to export their goods and services.

Fourth, a number of steps were taken on cotton, including eliminating export subsidies. Again, this is positive for Pakistan given the country was not entitled to provide these kinds of subsidies.

Members also agreed to work towards reducing domestic subsidies for cotton production — although progress here will be tough.

In addition, they agreed to improve market access for cotton produced in least-developed countries. This is positive in a developmental sense, but it is of course significant to Pakistan, which is the fourth largest cotton producer in the world. Nonetheless, Pakistan supported this outcome for the least-developed countries — which is a sign of the positive role that this country plays in our negotiations.

Ministers will be reviewing the trade aspects of cotton at our next Ministerial meeting, in 2017. 

Fifth, in Nairobi we welcomed two new members, Liberia and Afghanistan. These negotiations are always challenging, so I want to thank Pakistan for the important role it played in helping Afghanistan's accession.

Finally, a group of WTO members struck a deal to expand the WTO's Information Technology Agreement.

This deal will eliminate tariffs on 201 IT products, including the latest generation of semiconductors, GPS devices, advanced medical products and machine tools. Trade in these products is worth around 1.3 trillion dollars each year.

By abolishing tariffs on such a huge share of global trade, this deal will support lower prices — which will help many other sectors that use IT products as inputs — and it will help create jobs.

So I hope you will look into these developments closely, and potentially consider joining this expanded Agreement. 

These results build on other recent WTO breakthroughs.

In 2013, we held our Ministerial Conference in Bali.

The Pakistani Representative to the WTO at the time was Ambassador Shahid Bashir. He had a major role in the lead up to Bali, as Chair of the WTO General Council. The General Council is the WTO's highest governing body in Geneva. In this role he was crucial in helping to guide the many conversations and consultations in the process, which made the conference a success.  

A number of important outcomes were delivered in Bali — including the Trade Facilitation Agreement.

This Agreement is about streamlining, simplifying and standardising customs procedures, thereby reducing the time and cost of moving goods across the border. Studies show that when fully implemented, the Agreement could reduce trade costs for Pakistan by around 13%.

This will have a big impact in boosting trade flows in Pakistan. For developing economies this deal has the potential to increase global merchandise exports by up to $730 billion per annum.

We are living at a time when production has been globalised, when the components for a single product come from many different countries around the world.

Therefore, by making trade flow more smoothly and cheaply, economies have a better chance to integrate into these new production chains — and benefit from the boost in economic activity that they can bring.

The Trade Facilitation Agreement will speed up that process of integration.

I welcome Pakistan's commitment to trade facilitation reforms — and the country's ratification of this WTO Agreement in October last year.

I think this work can help to complement the reforms that you have been making to improve the economic climate and to attract foreign investment. And it helps to reinforce the message that the country is open for business.

The outcomes I have listed here are economically very significant. I think they show that the WTO can deliver in a way that is very meaningful for Pakistan.

But the work does not end there. In fact, we're just getting started.

We need to implement these agreements in full, deliver their potential benefits in full — and look to deliver more outcomes in the future.

Actually, for many years, global negotiations delivered few concrete results. This is one reason why countries have turned to other initiatives, such as regional trade agreements, to advance their economic interests.

Our studies show that WTO rules provide the basis for many regional agreements. However, regional agreements also go beyond WTO rules in some areas. And we need to think about the implications of this for the future.

A proliferation of different and potentially conflicting rules and standards could be a drag on business, so this is an important area of work. In addition, many developing markets are excluded from these conversations.

But of course, we shouldn't overstate the issue. The multilateral trading system has always coexisted with regional agreements — and they have proved to be mutually reinforcing.

Besides, there are many issues which can only be fully addressed in the multilateral system, such as agriculture subsidies.

What is important is that the multilateral system is itself operating well, responding to members' needs, and updating its own rules as necessary.

So where do multilateral negotiations stand today?

After the positive results of Bali and Nairobi, members have started a discussion on how the WTO can do more, and faster. It is clear that all WTO members want to deliver on the so-called Doha negotiating issues, such as domestic subsidies in agriculture, and improved market access for agricultural produce, industrial goods and services.

However, they do not agree on how to tackle them.

And some members would like to start discussing other issues as well. A range of things have been suggested — including, for example, fisheries subsidies, investment promotion, e-commerce, small and medium-sized enterprises, just to name a few.

This debate has already started — and I can’t over-emphasise how important it could prove to be. It could determine the shape of global trade talks for years to come.

Clearly there is a need for a period of reflection. Nonetheless, I think that this is an exciting time for the WTO.

Pakistan is the 16th country I've visited this year. And everywhere I go I have heard a lot of positivity and optimism about the WTO — about what we've been delivering in recent months, and about what we may be able to do in the future.

So I hope we can all draw some energy and encouragement from that. We have to build on this momentum.

Most importantly, I think that this is a real opportunity for Pakistan.

It is a chance to ensure that the WTO is taking action on the issues that matter most to you — so that global trade continues to support your economic objectives.

So I urge you to get engaged — and stay engaged. Your voice will be as important as ever.

Thank you.