National and Regional Impacts of Increasing Non-Agricultural Market Access by Developing Countries - the Case of Pakistan

Abstract

The US, the EU, Brazil and India met in Germany in June 2007 with a view to bridging differences between developed and developing countries on the Doha Round of trade negotiations. However, the talks broke down because of disagreement on the intertwined issues of agricultural protection and Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA). This study uses the first regional computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of Pakistan to evaluate the national and regional impacts of increasing NAMA as per two actual proposals of the US and the EU and Brazil and India at the 2007 meeting. The results suggest that overall benefits to Pakistan's economy-in terms of increased exports and real GDP-will plausibly be higher under the NAMA proposal advocated by the US and the EU than that advanced by Brazil and India. However, inter-industry inequalities in Pakistan and the existing regional disparities between the largest region and the three smaller regions of the country are projected to be higher under the proposal of the US and EU. Drawing on the results of the CGE simulations, the study puts forward a NAMA proposal which can be beneficial and acceptable to both developed and developing countries. A breakthrough in NAMA may also break the impasse over the agricultural issues because of the interdependence of the two issues.