Members of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group yesterday called upon World Trade Organisation (WTO) members to fully and faithfully implement decisions taken so far on duty-free and quota-free market access.
They emphasised, in particular, the decisions taken in the Hong Kong and Bali Ministerial Declarations.
The demands were raised at a meeting of the LDCs in Nairobi yesterday, chaired by Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, the LDC group’s coordinator at the WTO.
The LDCs put forward the demands, in the presence of WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo, a day before the start of the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi today.
A 21-member delegation from Bangladesh is attending the biennial conference.
“We will take a common stand on our demands at the trade negotiation with WTO members,” Tofail said.
The LDCs called for a strong commitment to addressing the marginalisation of the LDCs in international trade and to improving their effective participation in the multilateral system.
All issues of specific interest to the LDCs would be pursued on a priority basis to achieve commercially meaningful and legally binding outcomes, the LDC ministers’ declaration said.
In the ministerial declaration issued yesterday, a dispute over cotton emerged at the top of the LDC concerns, with ministers expressing dissatisfaction about the lack of progress over decisions about the cotton industry affecting the sector.
The declaration urged members to fast-track the resolution of the cotton issue at the Nairobi conference by adopting a section on it.
It also called upon members to adopt the proposed decision on rules of origin for LDCs which aims to operationalise the guidelines enumerated in the “Ministerial Conference Decision on Preferential Rules of Origin for LDCs” adopted in Bali, Indonesia.
