The Impact of Wto Quality Standards on the Horticulture Sector : A Case Study of Fruit Sector of Pakistan (1984-06)

Standards and technical regulations have become one of the important issues in the international trade agenda. Due to the increasing importance of quality standards the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 established the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT. These quality standards are also applicable on the production and exports of horticulture sector of Pakistan. Due to the imposition of WTO quality standards many quality issues and packaging problems have been generated. The study analyze the major fruit production and fruit exports of Pakistan before (1984-95) the implementation of the WTO quality standards and after the implementation of the WTO quality standards and the results shows that in Pakistan the level of WTO quality standards implication is very low. Public sector does not conduct quality control assessment. Due to the improper cold storage system for fruits most of the production goes waste. Although the production and exports of many fruits are increasing but still there is a need to give importance to the WTO quality standards certification.