On
September 12, 2003, the third day of WTO
Ministerial Meeting in Cancun, Bangladesh
Minister for Commerce Mr Amir Khosru Mahmud
Chowdhury, MP attended a Symposium titled
Post Doha Marginalisation of LDC Concerns
as the Chief Guest. The event was organised
by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
The CPD, which is being represented by
a three-member delegation, is participating
in, and organising various events in Cancun
with an objective to advance LDC interests
in the context of the ongoing Ministerial
discussions in Cancun.
Chaired by CPD Executive Director Dr Debapriya
Bhattacharya, the inaugural session was
also addressed by Mr Suhel Ahmed Choudhury,
Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Bangladesh,
and Dr Taufiq Banuri, Chairman of the
Geneva based International Centre for
Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD),
which was a co-organiser of the symposium.
The Minister, who is also the Vice-Chairman
of the Ministerial Meeting, shared some
of his thoughts as regards the progress
of the first two days of negotiations.
He mentioned that whilst LDCs are trying
to push their agendas in the area of market
access, special and differential treatment
and capacity building support no break
through is yet discernable. He noted that
as of now a lot of discussions is being
concentrated on agricultural market access
and Singapore Issues, where there are
strong opposing positions amongst the
WTO members. "These issues are staring
at each other and everyone is waiting
who will blink first". Dwelling on
the GATS Mode 4 [movement of natural persons]
issue, the Minister said that although
the draft Ministerial text takes into
consideration the LDC interest, the US
has come out very strongly against it.
The Minister thought that track-two civil
society initiatives are critically important
in putting pressure on the developed countries
in the context of current negotiations
in Cancun in terms of placing LDC concerns
and interests at the heart of current
negotiations.
Mr Suhel Ahmed Choudhury expressed his
frustration as regards the progress so
far and observed that if the demands of
the LDCs are not satisfied they should
take a fresh look at the multilateral
trading regime after the Ministerial meeting
is over.
The inaugural session was followed by
four working sessions on "Market
Access and Meaningful Integration of LDCs
in Multilateral Trading Regime",
"GATS Negotiations; Some Gains But
Long Way to Go", "S&D and
Technical Assistance" and "WTO
Accession", where experts from CPD,
North South Institute, Ottawa and leading
think tanks in Nepal and India presented
papers.
Numbers of government delegations from
developing and least-developed countries,
representatives from leading non-governmental
organisations and advocacy groups, experts
and members of press assembled in Cancun
were present at the symposium.
