ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Senate was informed on Friday that being member of World Trade Organization (WTO), Pakistan has extended Most Favored Nation (MFN) to all WTO member countries except India and Israel.Â
Replying to a question in the Upper House, the Minister of Commerce Engineer Dastgir Khan said that there are a total of 164 members of WTO, and since 2006, 14 new members have joined it. Hence, he said, Pakistan has granted MFN status to 14 countries in the last 10 years.
The minister said that MFN status is granted by all the WTO member states at moment of on accession, adding that therefore 14 new member states to WTO have granted MFN status to Pakistan in the last 10 years.
Under the WTO agreements- General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)-countries cannot normally discriminate between their trading partners, he added. This principle, the minister said is known as most favored-nation (MFN) treatment.
The term means the country which is the recipient of this treatment must receive equal advantages as the “most favored nation by the co-trade such treatment, he said.
Dastgir said that the purpose of granting MFN status to WTO members is to bring uniformity and predictability to international trade, and to remove barrier to trade through reduction of tariffs and eliminating of discriminatory NTBs.
It also aimed at to provide level playing fields for foreign producers at par with the local producers to ensure efficient production for consumers, he added.
