The last ministerial meeting of World Trade Organisation in Bali, Indonesia has failed to take any measures for the Least Developed Countries in the wake of distrust of the negotiation process, experts told a conference in Dhaka yesterday.
They observed that developed countries dominate the negotiation process in any contracts, thereby hardly taking into account the interests of LDCs.
The observation came at a session titled “Trade: does the Bali outcome hold promise for the future?”
The session was organised as part of a two-day ICC International Conference on “Global Economic Recovery: Asian Perspective” at a city hotel.
The experts said LDCs need to develop their expertise to debate at such platforms as to achieve goals.
The Bali package created a hope to us and then it turned to anger and disappointment, said Barbara Meynert, director of Fung Global Institute, Hong Kong.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) should be a platform where people can negotiate, Barbara added.
In his address, Bangladesh International Arbitration Centre (BIAC) Chief Executive Dr Toufiq Ali said the multilateral trade rules are designed only for the developed countries and so in trade negotiations, the interests of developed countries are taken care of as they dominate.
“The developing countries, however, have now major shares in trade and so they need to develop expertise to take advantage from such discussions.”
Bangladesh needs to be very careful at multilateral discussions and is required to develop its expertise to achieve goals, said Toufiq, also former ambassador and permanent representative of Bangladesh to UNCTAD, WTO.
The last ministerial meeting of WTO at Bali apparently reached consensus on some issues, but even these seem to be in risks now.
There has been an explosion of bilateral and regional preferential and free trade agreements that are at once both causes and consequences of the long-drawn process at WTO.
Such arrangements in the package put the trade and commerce of excluded nations at disadvantage, thus reducing the benefits of liberalised trade.
Taffere Tesfachew, director of the division on Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programmes, said a transparent and predictable system along with timing is needed to help LDCs in Bali agreement.
Policy Research Institute (PRI) of Bangladesh Chairman Dr Zaidi Sattar said there are two oncoming mega trade and investment partnership agreements - Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).
“Along with the two, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a possible opportunity for Bangladesh and this is what Bangladesh should look to,” he said, adding that RSEP is going to be a partnership between ASEAN and 10 countries including India and China.
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Executive Director Mustafizur Rahman said trade facilitation in WTO mainly focuses trade and customs facilitation, but it does not talk about infrastructural facilitation which is actually necessary.
“The trade facilitation does not focus infrastructure which is needed for trade facilitation. So, there is hardly any coherence and the need is to ensure coherence in global system. We just do not talk about WTO only, but also other global multilateral systems,” he said.
“Where are compensatory mechanisms we need in WTO system for LDCs ?” Mustafizur Rahman posed a question.
“WTO should become a part of solutions, not a part of problems.”
Former Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association President Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury pointed that the ready-made garments is not getting access with duty free quota system.
“Some 8,600 products were given duty free, but not those of RMG in which we hold strong position in export. That has been done intentionally. The LDC countries have potentialities that should be taken into consideration. There should not be any eyewash,” he said.
Sunil Bahadur Thapa, commerce and supplies minister of Nepal, who chaired the session.
He said timing is important for such agreements.
