Zahid Aslam Dr Kamal Mannoo begins his book, A Study of World Trade Organisation: With Special Emphasis on Pakistan Textile Sector, by writing: World Trade Organisation (WTO) is striving to significantly change the culture of global trade by endeavouring to successfully create a trading environment based on free and fair trading rules, regulations and practices for everyone. It is a treatise that first provides an understanding of the WTO itself and then goes on to discuss the two main sectors of Pakistans economy: Agriculture and Textiles. Pakistanis, especially members of the business community, are not much known for writing books on research-based technical subjects such as the World Trade Organisation. Dr Monnoo, who hails from a Lahore-based Chinioti business family that now has its fifth generation in industry and trade, educated at Yale and Syracuse, has painstakingly done so for the benefit of WTO related literacy of businessmen, industrialists, importers and exporters, HR and trading heads, lawyers, students, fresh graduates, potential exporters and, most importantly, for the Pakistan government. The WTO has influenced global trade like no other endeavour has been able to do before it. By introducing rule-based laws and principles not only has it contributed to enhancing connectivity between nations, but has also gone on to establish a culture of economic inter-dependence that makes the world a much safer and better place to live in. Regrettably, the Pakistani exporters, firms, SMEs and the government are not too familiar with its details and his book provides a good insight on how Pakistan and Pakistanis should conduct themselves within the WTO world. Also, for Pakistan, what should be the way forward To provide a flavour of the reasoning adopted by the author and the direction he recommends for the Pakistani policymakers, the following excerpts are taken from the books chapter, Way Forward - Pakistan and WTO: What should a country in Pakistans situation do when it comes to taking a position on reviving the currently stalled Doha trade negotiations? Analysts will recall that a new round of multilateral trade talks was launched after a meeting in November 2001 of the world trade ministers. The meeting was held in Doha, the capital of Qatar. It was 1abelled the development round, since the worlds large trading nations - the European Union, the United States and Japan - promised to concentrate on removing some of the injustices done to the developing world in the previous rounds. The most egregious of these injustices was the constraint on trade in textile products and generous subsidies provided to the farmers in rich countries to generate products and commodities that could be produced much more cheaply in developing countries. In the agreement that led to the launch of the Doha Talks, the worlds trading nations set themselves the goal to create a new international trading order by January 01, 2005. To reach this goal, the developed world promised that it would significantly reduce the payments being made to its farmers, reduce the tariffs and other restrictions on the import of textile products from the poor countries, and reduce the scope of non-tariff barriers faced by the developing world in the markets of rich countries. All these moves were of considerable interest to Pakistan. But these concessions would be made only if the developing countries, in particular those who had large economies such as Brazil, China, India and South Africa, were prepared to lower their high tariffs against imports from the industrial world. If such a move was to be made it would certainly also affect Pakistan. These countries had been allowed to maintain high tariffs on the grounds that they had to protect and nourish their 'infant industries. Dr Monnoo goes on to explain later in the chapter: However, before serious negotiations could be held with developing countries, the rich nations had to settle one dispute between them. This concerned the subsidy to the farmers. Among the rich countries, there were some that could cheaply produce farm products. Even though agriculture provided only three percent of its gross domestic product, the United States was the worlds largest exporter in agricultural products. Nonetheless, it aided its farmers by the use of selective subsidies. It was prepared to reduce the level of support provided if the Europeans followed with a similar move. Exactly how much should be cut by the two sides became the subject of intense negotiations and is one reason why the trade talks did not make much progress. Two proposals are now on the table. The action on them is waiting for a move by the large developing countries that would be acceptable to the rich nations. That has not happened and the talks are stalled. There are four options available to Pakistan at this stage. It could opt for what economists call the free rider approach. This implies that a party in an economic transaction does nothing on its own and takes advantage of the work done by others and the cost paid by them. This would mean surrendering the leadership in trade talks to Brazil, China, India and South Africa. This stance would make sense if Pakistans interests were seen as perfectly symmetrical with those of the large emerging economies. That, however, is not the case. Pakistan has an underdeveloped industrial sector, which cannot effectively compete with the industries of either the large developing countries or the established industrial countries. As stated above, Dr Monnoos book concentrates mainly on two sectors of vital interest to Pakistan: Agriculture and Textiles. These sectors - backbone of Pakistans economy - are also of prime importance from a global perspective, as they hold the key to the successful culmination of the Doha Round of Talks. Trade liberalisation through the WTO regime has forced the world into a tough competition. To face this situation, the developing nations (such as ours) have to reshape their trade policies. This book, as evident from the excerpt above, provides a future vision to help Pakistans trade policy in general and its manufacturing and textile sectors in particular. It finally goes on to suggest achievable ways for Pakistans corporations and products to attain competitive advantage in the global markets. This comprehensive book covers chapters such as: i Understanding WTO, intellectual property rights and dispute settlement; i Textiles and doing away with quotas; i Pakistans textile industry and global competition; i WTO politics and reaching an agreement round by round; i Textile as an Industry - Pakistan; and i WTO and Pakistans textile industry. The writer had covered WTO and Pakistan till 2007, but since then a lot of water has flowed under the WTO and the world, in between has seen perhaps the worst financial meltdown ever. Keeping this in mind, he has taken care to add postscript till December 2009. Finally, the price of the book Rs895 (kept by the publishers M/S Ferozesons Limited) is not affordable for the students and general readers. This must-read book for businessmen, industrialists, academics, bureaucracy and especially the students enrolled in this field deserves to be provided at least to the educational institutions at confessional rates for wider readership. The writer is COO?of a company making investment in wind power and real estate in Pakistan. Email: coo@niazgroup.com