Pakistan trade policy project (dfid and aasr) study on trade in services (Volume I)

PAKISTAN TRADE POLICY PROJECT

(Volume I)

1. 
   The current structure of services provision and exports from Pakistan.
   
2. 
   Service- specific and mode –specific trade data.
   

• 
  Availability and comprehensiveness of services trade data for imports and exports in Pakistan.
  
• 
  Detailed recommendations o an optimal data and analysis framework for GATS reporting and policy formulation requirements in future.
  

1. 
   A survey of domestic policies and regulations affecting market access, national treatment, MFN exemptions and services imports to Pakistan.
   

2. 
   Interpretation of Pakistan’s current GATS Schedule of Commitments in terms of liberalizing services imports and the impacts on domestic services providers.
   
3. 
   Assessment of the compatibility of current policies with Pakistan’s services commitments.
   
4. 
   A review of the research on commitments made by WTO members by sectors and modes of supply, focussing particularly on sectors and modes of supply, focussing particularly on sectors and modes of potential interest to Pakistan.
   

1. 
   Assessment of Pakistan’s interests in relation to sectors and modes of supply, including those set out in WTO position paper S/CSS/W/131.
   
2. 
   Identification of existing and potential barriers to Pakistan’s services exports.
   
3. 
   Identification of Pakistan’s potential services exports sectors and modes of supply.
   
4. 
   An overview of the positions of other members and (groups of members) in relation to the other services negotiations, with a view to identifying potential strategic negotiating alliances for Pakistan.
   
5. 
   Definition of potential requests.
   

1. 
   Identification of domestic services sectors which should be opened up to foster domestic development and growth.
   
2. 
   Identification of domestic services sectors in which protection should be maintained.
   
3. 
   Assessment of sectors and modes of supply in which autonomous liberalization by Pakistan has outpaced Pakistan’s GATS bindings and in which there is therefore existing “negotiating space” available to GOP.
   
4. 
   Definition of potential offers.
   

• 
  To analyze present policies of Pakistan relating to its Services Sector, and to assist the Ministry of Commerce to participate more effectively in the current round of negotiations under the GATS;
  
• 
  Bearing in mind the recent rapid technological advances in transport, computing and telecommunications including the development of Internet and electronic commerce, to lay the foundations for a longer term approach to the Services Sector;
  
• 
  To recommend to the Government of Pakistan to adapt its statistical system to the new framework evolved by the United Nations Statistical Division, in collaboration with the OECD, the IMF, the UNCTAD and the WTO, for compiling statistics of international trade in services; and
  
• 
  To recommend an institutional framework that should design, in consultation with the private sector, short and long term policies to promote foreign investment, technological development and export of services.
  

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  The WTO Wing, Ministry of Commerce;
  
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  *The State Bank of Pakistan;
  
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  The Ministry of Industries and Production;
  
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  The Ministry of Science and Technology;
  
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  The Board of Investment;
  
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  The Securities and Exchange Commission;
  
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  *The Federal Chamber of Commerce and Industry; and
  
• 
  *The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
  

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  The Pakistan Engineering Council, Islamabad;
  
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  *The Institute of Chartered Accounts, Karachi;
  
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  *The Institute of Bankers;
  
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  The Ministry of IT and Telecommunications including PTA and PTCL;
  
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  The Ministry of Finance; and
  
• 
  The Ministry of Education.
  
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  *The NESPAK, Lahore