Development
activists on Thursday described
the outcome of the World Trade Organisation
Ministerial Conference at Cancun
as “a victory without joy”. However
Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud
Chowdhury, who led the Bangladesh
delegation to Cancun remarked that
“it was big achievement for
Bangladesh and Least Developing
Countries (LDCs).”
The
Commerce Minister assured that Bangladesh
along with the LDCs are preparing
for the next round of WTO negotiation. The
comment came at a dialogue on “Cancun
WTO Ministerial: A Post Assessment”
organised by Centre for Policy Dialogue
on Thursday at the CIRDAP auditorium.
Others who spoke at the interaction
were Tofail Ahmed, Awami League
leader and former Commerce and Industries
Minister, Suhel Ahmed Chowdhury,
Secretary Commerce Ministry, and
Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury. The
keynote paper was presented by Debapriya
Bhattacharya, Executive Director
of CPD, while it was moderated by
M. Syeduzzaman, former Finance Minister
and member of CPD Trustee Board.
Tofail
Ahmed said the developed nations
pressed for liberalisation and globalisation
instead of negotiation with the
LDCs. They refused and denied the
legitimate demands of the poor countries,
he said from his experience while
participating in the WTO talks during
his tenure as leader of the LDCs. The
speakers warned that despite the
Cancun collapse it does not stop
ready-made-garments (RMG) quota
phaseout in 2005 and said the American
market access will hardly come through
multilateral process.
Dr
Bhattacharya lauded the role of
the G-21 and dubbed it as “spectre
of NAM” and said they were
vocal at the conference. But it
was not always supportive of the
LDCs Dhaka Declaration. The G-21
raised pertinent issues including
elimination of domestic subsidies
that benefit corporations over
small farmers and leads to global
dumping in agriculture, which
was supported by the civil society
and NGOs critical of WTO.
Regarding
Bangladesh, he said it has three
hats at WTO conference. A national
responsibility, leader of LDCs and
Vice-Chair at the ministerial conference. Bangladesh
during the WTO negotiation was not
always similar to those of other
LDCs. For example, Bangladesh's
priority was duty-free and quota
free market access.
CPD
suggests that while preparing
for the next round of negotiation,
Bangladesh should encourage increase
activity of civil society role.
Adequate identification of issues
of interest and priorities and
simultaneous consultations at
home through advisory committee,
working group and thematic task
forces, have been suggested.
