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The Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference
Hong Kong, China, 13 to 18 December 2005.
LDCs
need to handle farm subsidy carefully in WTO
As least developed
countries (LDCs) are net food importing nations, issue of
reducing or withdrawing farm subsidy should be dealt with very
carefully in the WTO negotiation, speakers at a national
consultation observed yesterday.
The LDCs should gang up and try to have common voice of
getting binding commitments for duty and quota free access for
their products to the developed countries, they added.
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) organised
the national consultation on 'WTO Doha Round & South Asia:
Linking Civil Society with Trade Negotiation' at its
conference room in Dhaka.
Speaking
at the programme, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, former
commerce minister, said: "While we are trying to integrate
with multilateral trading system, we must start to integrate
regionally."
He
referred to an effort of WTO director general, saying Pascal
Lamy is making an endeavour to help LDCs get market access to
the developing countries.
Expressing his frustration while he was the commerce minister,
Khosru said as Bangladesh was promoting movement of natural
persons in the developed countries, India and Pakistan were
not forthcoming.
Civil
society plays a very important role in the whole process, he
felt adding that disparity in income distribution in South
Asia should also figure in the WTO discussion.
Speaking
at the function, Commerce Secretary Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi said
Bangladesh is now working for final preparation for its
negotiating position in the forthcoming Hong Kong ministerial.
Chairing
a business session, Dr M A Taslim, former chairman of
Bangladesh Tariff Commission, said Bangladesh has kept prices
of agricultural products below the international level. "The
policy we have in place actively discourages export," he
mentioned.
Explaining the risks of bilateral negotiations for the poor
countries, he said: "Our negotiating capacity is weak. So, it
is very difficult to get benefit after having negotiations
with countries like US, China or India."
Sayed
Alamgir Farrouk Chowdhury, former commerce secretary, said
LDCs are crippled with bad governance and other problems. So,
developed countries should not be blamed solely.
Dr Quazi
Shahabuddin, director general of BIDS, also spoke at the
consultation while Dr Salma Chaudhury Zohir, research fellow
of BIDS, presented a report on 'Development Dimension in the
Doha Round: Concerns of South Asia'.
Workshop Presentations
Development Dimension in Doha Round: Concerns of South Asia
Dr. Salma Chaudhuri Zohir, Dr. Narayan
Chandra Nath
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies
WTO
Doha Round and South Asia Trade Facilitation
Jayanthi Thennakoon
Institute of Policy Studies, Sri Lanka
July
Package & South Asian Agriculture
Prof. J. George
Faculty of Economics & Development Planning (FEDP), Haryana
Institute of Public Administration
Services Negotiations in Doha Round: Concerns of South Asia
Pranav Kumar
CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment,
India
Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) South Asian Perspective
Pakistan Institute of Development Economics
Islamabad, Pakistan
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