World Trade Organization’s Agreements Affecting Pak-Afghan Border Tribes

Abstract

This paper attempts to highlight the perceived threats of World Trade Organization’s certain agreements to the livelihood of the tribes residing erstwhile FATA and adjacent five-border provinces/wilayatona of Afghanistan. There are seventeen agreements of WTO that deals with issues related to trade and commerce. The Agreement on Agriculture offers obligations for member states in the area of market access, tariff regulations, export competition, domestic support, export subsidies, food security, and environmental protection. If agreements such as Agreement on Agriculture, General Agreement on Trade and Services, Trade Policy Review Mechanism and Social Clause are extended without adjustment to the needs of poor nations and sub-nations living on the peripheries, then it may prove detrimental to their survival. To substantiate my argument, I have briefly discussed the adverse affects and recorded protests against such agreements by the poor indigenous people living across the world’s different peripheries.