Failure in negotiations on trade facilitation in the upcoming WTO ministerial meeting in Bali will weaken the multilateral trading system, the interests of least developed countries (LDCs) like Bangladesh, analysts said on Friday.
They were also of the view that the Doha Round might get impetus or face death if the Bali meeting failed to bring any positive outcome. This will also create an opportunity for the developed countries to go for regional trade agreements, which will delay duty-free access of the LDCs’ products to the developed countries.
The remarks came at a three-day international conference on the upcoming ninth WTO ministerial in the city.
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in association with a host of international organisations arranged the event aimed at creating a platform to discuss issues of concern and interests of the LDCs in the context of the current negotiations in Geneva and the upcoming negotiations in Bali, Indonesia on December 3-6.
The event brought together 15 overseas participants, including the WTO negotiators and ambassadors, officials from the WTO Secretariat, academics and trade policy experts and activists.
Commerce Minister GM Quader inaugurated the event and urged the LDCs to take a common stance to get preferential trade facilities from the developed countries.
“The LDCs should raise their voice together to get duty- and quote-free access for their products to the developed countries,” he said.
Debapriya Bhattacharya, a CPD distinguished fellow, said there had been a lot of commitments for trade facilitation but no effective measures were taken for implementing those.
“Failure of the Bali meeting may bring death for the Doha Round. So, Bali meeting is very important,” he said.
He also said if the multilateral trading system did not get impetus, many developed countries would revert to bilateral trade agreement, “which will lead to loss of competiveness of the LDCs’ products.”
The issue about duty-free access of LDCs to the development countries remained unresolved for too long, which was a matter of concern, he said.
CPD Executive Director Mustafizur Rahman said the current Doha Round negotiations had been the most prolonged event in the history of multilateral trade negotiations as it was ongoing for twelve years.
“The world has changed significantly since 2001 when ministers met in Doha. There are reasons for the LDCs to be frustrated as they observed that a round which was ambitiously termed ‘Development Round’ saw its development content gradually recede in the background.”
He said the LDCs continued to suffer significant preference erosion in the face of a growing number of regional trade agreements and weak commitment for aid for trade, high and volatile food and commodity prices.
Steffen Smidt, special representative of Denmark to the WTO, in a message said for the first time, the governments would have a set of multilaterally agreed guidelines, which should help make it easier for LDC exports to qualify for preferential market access both to developed and developing country markets.
Smidt is also the facilitator to the TNC chairman on LDC issues for the WTO Bali ministerial conference.
Members have now agreed that once the LDCs table a collective request indentifying their sectors and modes of supply of export interest to them, they will hold a high-level meeting. Then they will indicate where they intend to provide preferential market access to the LDC services suppliers.
The three-day conference endeavoured to articulate a common stance concerning key deliverables of the development package in Bali.
Sessions of the conference will discuss state of play of current negotiations in Geneva and the LDCs’ interests, and possible stance as regards negotiations on trade facilitation, agriculture issues, including food security and cotton, duty-, quota-free market access for the LDCs, and the LDC waiver in the services sector.
Discussions will also focus on systemic issues and the way forward. Based on the discussions and suggestions at the event, an outcome document will be prepared articulating the LDC deliverables.
