Commerce
Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury
MP said no break-through is yet
discernable in the Cancun trade
talks whilst LDC's are trying
to push their agendas in the areas
of market access, special and
differential treatment and capacity
building support.
The minister said while attending
a symposium titled Post Doha marginalisation
of LDC concerns as the chief guest
on the third day of WTO ministerial
meeting. Organised by the Centre
for Policy Dialogue (CPD) here
on Friday.
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 interest
in the context of the ongoing
Ministerial discussions here,
said a press release.
Amir Khosru 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 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 concern and interests at the
heart of current negotiations.
Chaired by CPD Executive Director
Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya the
inaugural session was also addressed
by 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.
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 Multilaterial 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.
