Trade experts made a fervent call for building the country's trade-related capacity, getting the rules of origin further relaxed and strengthening the infrastructural backbone of the economy to help an optimum expansion of the export market.
The suggestions came from a roundtable discussion on 'Bali Decision on Preferential Rules of Origin for LDCs: Issues for Bangladesh', as strict RoO tags restrict access of the country's products to different overseas markets.
Speakers at the meet highlighted the urgency of taking measures for relaxing the trade rules as Bangladesh is entitled to have preferential treatment to its exports by virtue of being a least-developed country.
Rules of Origin (RoO) are a set of principles applied to determine the originating status of a product imported into a country-essentially fixing a certain amount of local value addition to the item.
But the RoO, according to the speakers, are frequently being used as non-tariff barriers to offer protection to domestic markets from competition. And this tool deprives the LDCs of the benefits associated with the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP).
To protect the nation's interests, the meeting also underscored effectively negotiating the issue, along with other LDCs, with the developed countries.
The Committee of Rules of Origin reviews the developments time to time in line with the global trading regime.
Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) and Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI) jointly organized the conference at the MCCI conference hall to assess the impacts of rules of origin on export and find ways of making it more productive.
"The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have been seeking flexible rules-of-origin criteria since the launch of the DDA (Doha Development Agenda) negotiations, to better utilise the preferences accorded to them," said Dr. Mustafa Abid Khan.
Mr Khan, acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI), presented the keynote on the topic of talk on the tricky trade issues.
MCCI President Syed Nasim Manzur, who presided over the meeting, also underscored the need for a flexible and simplified set of rules of origin and strengthening bilateral trade negotiations with individual countries.
"There is confusion about export of pharmaceutical products from LDCs after 2016 as it will need extension of international intellectual property protection rules," said the MCCI president, suggesting more focus on this matter.
The conference was also addressed, among others, by Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, additional secretary Monoj Kumar Roy, Director-General of the WTO cell of the commerce ministry Amitava Chakraborty and FBCCI adviser Manzur Ahmed.
To get to the goal of building up a middle-income country by the year 2021, commerce secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon stressed taking some future strategic plans. "We should negotiate, along with other LDCs, with developed countries for relaxing the rules of origin right now," he said.
Speakers, mainly officials from related government and private organisations and trade bodies, also underscored the need for increasing the country's negotiating capacity especially in value addition and tariff classification, active involvement in various bilateral and multilateral negotiations for other preferential trade arrangements.
According to the keynote paper, the LDCs have been benefiting from the LDC-specific generous rules of origin of the GSP schemes of the EU and Canada.
For Bangladesh, growth of export is higher in the EU, Canada, China and Japan.
For the LDCs, the WTO Bali conference was of high importance. In line with the work programme agreed upon in Bali, subsequent negotiations will require a proactive engagement on the part of LDCs.
The Bali decision, thus, obligates the LDCs to do the necessary homework and pursue and advance their interests through future trade negotiations.
Bangladesh needs to be very careful at multilateral discussions and is required to develop its expertise to achieve goals, said one participant.
He also stressed the need for increase in efficiency and developing infrastructure besides work for relaxing the strict rules of origin.
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