(i) Market Access Negotiations and Free Trade Agreements are conducted under various Agreements under the GATT / WTO Regime. These negotiations have to be undertaken considering (i) the individual needs of a WTO member country and the industry and (ii) fiscal, developmental, strategic and other needs of the member country.

Pakistan has already entered into both bilateral and multilateral tariff negotiations which are detrimental to its domestic industry and need to be reconsidered. Besides such future negotiations need to carried on the principles and provisions given in the GATT / WTO regime.

(ii) The GATT / WTO rules deal with two types of "unfair" trade practices which distort conditions of competition. First, the competition may be unfair if the exported goods benefit from subsidies, Second, the conditions of competition may be distorted if the exported good are dumped in foreign market. In general, a product is considered to be dumped if the export price is less than the price charged for the like product in the exporting countries. A product is also considered to be dumped if it is sold for less than its cost of production.

The economic turn down due to COVID-19 will make Pakistan a dumping ground of imported goods if necessary timely anti-dumping measures are not adopted.

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