BD may act as coordinator of LDCs in ensuing WTO ministerial confce

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Nizam Ahmed Bangladesh is expected to play the role of coordinator for 31 least developed countries (LDCs) at the upcoming ministerial conference of the World Trade Orgaisation (WTO) to be held in Geneva, officials said on Saturday. Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Muhammad Faruk Khan is likely to lead a strong team of some 20 members comprising leaders of chamber bodies, experts and officials to the conference, scheduled for December 15 to 17, a senior official of the ministry of commerce (MoC) said. The conference is likely to grant full membership to Russia, Samoa and Montenegro, according to the agenda of the conference. The conference is likely to adopt a number of resolutions regarding multilateral trading system and trade and development. Trade and Investment Minister Olusegun Olutoyin Aganga of Nigeria, Chairman of the conference will make a concluding statement. The LDCs are likely to be vocal for implementation of the decisions to give LDCs duty-free and quota-free access to the developed countries taken in a similar conference in Hong Kong in 2005. "We have already exchanged views to adopt a united stance to realise the goal of duty free and quota free access for exports from LDCs to any country," a senior official of the MOC told the FE. The commerce ministers from the LDCs will also put pressure for withdrawal of all sorts of restrictions on food exports to LDCs, mostly to net food-importing developing countries (NFIDCs). "Participation at such a conference is a continuous efforts of the LDCs to realise justified trade facilities from the developed countries," Prof. Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) told the FE. Prof. Mustafiz, head of the think tank and also a member of the government delegation to the WTO ministerial conference said: "We have to keep on pressurising the developed world to realise the trade facilities." Trade ministers from some 153 WTO-member countries are expected to attend the conference which is likely to recommend easing of the dealing procedures for foods, as requested by the World Food Programme (WFP). Meanwhile, the group of net food-importing developing countries (NFIDCs), including Bangladesh, has also submitted a proposal to the WTO for adopting a mechanism to mitigate the impact of food price volatility on the least developed countries (LDCs) and NFIDCs. Global food imports will amount to $1.3 trillion in 2011, and the food import bills of the least developed countries (LDCs) have soared by over a third over the last year, a recent UN report said. The 31 LDCs constitute about 12 per cent of the world's population but account for less than one per cent of world trade, according to a data of WTO, based on 2008. Currently, the number of LDCs in the globe is 48. Besides, the duty-free, quota-free market access for products originating from LDCs with simplified rules of origin, lifting of subsidy on cotton and movement of natural person will be the other challenging issues for the poor countries at the ministerial conference, leader of a trade chamber, who is also a member of the delegation to the ministerial conference, said. The delegation members said they would support the move of African LDCs for lifting subsidy from cotton by developed countries including the USA as the African LDCs had assured of extending their support for duty and quota free access. The conference will also discuss Aid for Trade and of the Third Global Aid for Trade Review. In this session the decision of the EU to provide duty-free access for 75 items of flood-hit Pakistan also may also be taken. The EU decision to give the trade concession to Pakistan for a period of three years from 2012, has been stalled following an objection from Bangladesh. Bangladesh objected against the decision saying aid and trade should not be mixed up and the trade concession to Pakistan might hamper Bangladesh garment exports to EU. It may be mentioned here that according to WTO rules only LDCs are entitled to get duty free access to any country or bloc. The Genera Council (GC) of the WTO in its latest meeting held in Geneva on November 30 and December 1, recommended that the ministerial conference should remain committed to efforts to facilitate accessions, in particular of least-developed countries (LDCs). The GC also acknowledged the needs of LDCs and committed to ensure that the inetersts of LDCs would be given due priority in the future work of the WTO, a statement of the global trade body said. The GC also urged the ministerial conference to underscore the WTO's role in keeping markets open is particularly critical in the light of the challenging global economic environment.