Speakers at a discussion on Sunday said though the WTO Bali Package was frustrating for least developed countries (LDCs), it was beneficial to Bangladesh.
They said the most important part of the Bali accord was its perfect-timing in the backdrop of the global plan on transition from millennium development goals (MDGs) to sustainable development goals (SDGs).
They were speaking at the business session-two of the two-day ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) conference at a city hotel.
Nepalese Commerce and Supplies Minister Sunil Bahadur Thapa chaired the session while Chief Executive of Bangladesh International Arbitration Centre (BIAC) Dr. Toufiq Ali, Director of the Division on Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programmes of World Trade Organisation (WTO) Taffere Tesfachew, Chairman of Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh ((PRI) Dr. Zaidi Sattar and Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Executive Director Dr Mustafizur Rahman spoke on the occasion.
Director of Fung Global Institute of Hong Kong Barbara Meynert, former President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers & Exporters Association (BGMEA) Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez and Director of National Committees of ICC Headquarters in Paris François-Gabriel Ceyrac spoke as discussants.
The Bali Package is a trade agreement resulting from the Ninth Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Bali, Indonesia held on December 3-7, 2013. It is aimed at lowering global trade barriers and it is the first agreement reached through the WTO. The package forms part of the Doha Development Round, which started in 2001.
Dr. Toufiq Ali said LDCs had to question domination of developed countries during negotiation at the multilateral trade discussion.
He said WTO was still very valuable for international dispute resolution but the global forum was failing to do what it was supposed to do.
Taffere Tesfachew said the Bali Package was held at a perfect time and the focal point of the discussion was trade facilitation.
He said trade played a very important role in eliminating poverty across the world and trade helped millions of people come out of poverty.
He said the new SDGs were targeting elimination of poverty from the world within 15 years. He termed a very challenging task. Trade facilitation would help the world to do so, he added.
Dr Zaidi Sattar said Bangladesh is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the trade facilitation which was the outcome of the Bali meeting.
He said trade pushes growth, growth creates jobs and job creation alleviates poverty and, thus Bangladesh has been a beneficiary of trade.
Professor Mustafizur Rahman said WTO meetings discuss only regulatory issues and customs-related issues, which are related to trade. But there are many issues that remain left out like infrastructure.
He said the Bali outcome was totally frustrating, though it is a fact that Bangladesh has greatly benefited from rules-related trade facilitation.
He said trade liberalisation cannot make a country developed one, there are many other aspects a developed country should deal with.
He predicted that Bangladesh would still remain an LDC country, even it graduates from the current status by 2021.
Barbara Meynert said the Bali meeting created distrust among the countries.
"But we still have to be hopeful afresh for a new beginning," she said.
François-Gabriel Ceyrac said it was not right that everything in Bali accord was frustrating; there were some special measures taken for the least developed countries.
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