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Allowing free movement of labour from developing countries could have been more beneficial for rich nations than any of trade liberalising steps they have initiated so far.
And, developing countries could have benefited more if they were given labour market access instead of aid.

Making this observation at a function in Dhaka Thursday, Roman Grynberg, deputy director of Commonwealth Secretariat, said free temporary movement of natural persons can be beneficial both for developed and developing countries.

“Even a small opening up of labour market can substantially benefit both the developed and developing countries,” he said.

If the OECD (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) countries allocated only a 3 per cent quota of labour force to developing countries, the benefits would have been 150 per cent larger than that from all other trade liberalisation steps, he said citing a study of Commonwealth trade department.

He offered Bangladesh technical assistance from Commonwealth trade department which he heads to develop skilled labour forces, like nurses, teachers etc for migration.

“We do not provide financial assistance…but we can provide the basic assistance.”

Grynberg was presenting the findings of an on-going study conducted by the Commonwealth Secretariat themed on ‘Migration and Mode 4 in Health and Education Sector: Towards a Trade and Development Approach’ at the Centre for Policy Dialogue office.

CPD chairman Professor Rehman Sobhan chaired the function, which was also attended by former commerce minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury.

Explaining the benefits of the Mode 4 of the General Agreement on Trade and Service, he said, “It would have been better to give market access to the developing countries rather than giving aid.”

Mode 4 refers to the GATS classification of the various modes of delivery in trade and services under the on-going World Trade Organisation talks.

In contrast to the other three modes (cross-border supply, consumption abroad and commercial presence), WTO market access commitments under Mode 4 are relatively restricted. Progress has been slower in relation to services supplied through the temporary movement of natural persons.

Despite significant interest in Mode 4 from South Asia and other developing countries, ‘there is no substantial progress in Geneva,’ he said, adding that Caribbean countries have no desire to touch upon the issue because many of them have bilateral arrangements with the US and Canada.

Developed countries also seem to prefer bilateral approach at this time, he added.

However, he was of the view that the developing countries should develop a mechanism to make sure that workers will come back after a certain period of time. “It is difficult but it is not impossible.”

In his presentation, Grynberg said that the Commonwealth has addressed the issue of migration of skilled labour opening up avenues for global recruitment of health workers and teachers. It has also developed a business council focusing on African human capital recruitment targeting the Caribbean countries.
Bangladesh can exploit the potentials by developing professional nurses up to the international standard, which, he said, has a growing demand in the developed countries.