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Dhaka for advancing duty-free market access agenda

Talha Bin Habib | Published: May 22, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Bangladesh will request the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to help the country get duty-free market access to the US market when the head of Geneva-based global trade arbiter arrives in Dhaka next month, officials said.
Simplification of origination rules and temporary migration will also figure prominently during the meeting between the government side and director general of the WTO Roberto Azevedo.
Mr Azevedo will arrive in the country on June 3 for a two day official visit. During his visit, he will call on the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
He will hold meetings with the commerce minister, foreign minister and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) on the development in the garment (RMG) sector.
"We will discuss the issues taken up at the ministerial conference of WTO in Bali last year with Mr Roberto Azevedo," an additional secretary of the ministry of commerce (MoC) told the FE Wednesday.
He said that the DG will deliver his speech on June 3 at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in the city where the government high ups and business people will be present.
The WTO chief is expected to visti RMG and pharmaceutical factories located at Gazipur on the outskirt of the city.    
The trade official said Bangladesh will press the WTO for the completion of the Doha Round Negotiations.
The Doha Round Negotiation or Doha Development Agenda was launched in 2001 and is supposed to be ended by 2014.
If the Doha Round Negotiations is completed by the end of the year then Bangladesh will get duty free and quota free market access to the US market.
The 6th ministerial meeting of the WTO in Hong Kong in 2005 took the decision for providing 97 per cent duty free and quota free market access for LDCs products to the developed and developing countries.   
The ministerial meeting of the WTO in Bali, Indonesia last year also reiterated the decision taken in Hong Kong, calling upon the developed countries to provide duty free and quota free market access to the LDCs products to their markets. 

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