Second LDC Trade Ministers'
Meeting
Dhaka, Bangladesh, 31st
May - 2nd June 2003
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Second LDC Trade Ministers' Meeting - Dhaka, Bangladesh 31 May to 2 June 2003
DOHA WTO 2001 MINISTERIAL DECLARATION
LDC Trade Ministers'
Meeting - Zanzibar |
SECOND LDC TRADE MINISTERS' MEETING NEWS
WTO
comes under LDC wrath over trade barrier
Second ministerial conference begins
http://www.dailystarnews.com/
Star Report
The World Trade Organisation and the developed nations yesterday came
under severe criticism from the least developed countries (LDCs) at the
opening session of the three-day second conference of trade ministers of the
world's poorest nations. The delegates called upon the developed countries to remove trade
barriers and fulfil their repeated pledges concerning a wide range of other
trade facilitation measures.
Tanaznian Minister for Industry and Trade Juma A Ngasongwa, who chaired the LDCs' first ministerial conference in Zanzibar, handed over chairmanship of the second one to Bangladesh Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury.
The Dhaka meeting aims to set a common agenda of the LDCs for the WTO ministerial conference at Cancun in Mexico in September this year.
The Zanzibar meeting tried to work out a common LDC stand for the fourth ministerial conference of the WTO held in Doha.
Speakers at the meeting yesterday noted the LDCs are under constant
pressure not to give subsidy while the developed countries continue to
subsidise their own agriculture sector by about $1billion a day. Expectations of the LDCs have not been fulfilled but the LDCs are asked
to fulfil their obligations, they pointed out. Inaugurating the conference, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury said the World
Bank estimates that in Japan the subsidy for a cow is $7.5 a day and that in
the European Union is more than $2.
" To put this in context, about a billion people survive on less than a dollar a day. Are the WTO rules to protect cows in developed countries, in preference to the underprivileged in our countries?" he asked.
Amir Khosru said in some cases the applicable rules of origin act as barriers to the entry of the LDCs' goods to the developed countries. In other cases, it could be that other non-tariff barriers make the concessions inoperable, he added.
"Are the LDCs benefiting from the rule-based multilateral trading system? And, what has been the impact of the system on the share of LDCs in world trade? Are we better off than before?" he asked. Over the last few decades, the LDCs' share of world trade has declined drastically, despite an increase in the number of the LDCs, he mentioned.
"We need to send a strong message to the international community emphasising our interests," Khosru said.
Juma A Ngasongwa said because of very low levels of the LDCs' economic development, the chances of further marginalisation within the global economy are too real to be ignored unless further measures are taken in their favour.
He said there are major concerns of the LDCs that need to be addressed by the multilateral trading system. Citing examples of the supply side constraints in respect of infrastructure, human resource and capacity of the LDCs' economies, he stressed the need for predictable and easy market access of the LDCs' exports.
Besides, implementation issues in the context of the WTO agreements and accession barriers to the LDCs, who are yet to become members of the WTO, are also concerns of the LDCs, Juma added.
He noted that some important deadlines in the Doha development agenda have not been met, affecting the LDCs. These include implementation problems, special and differential treatment, agriculture and public health. "At the same time, we are under extreme pressure to start negotiations and assume new obligations on Singapore Issues," he said.
The WTO agenda has to take into account the concerns of the LDCs, Juma said. "This, I believe, is the only way to have a sustainable multilateral trading system."
Commerce Secretary Suhel Ahmed said most of the LDCs have comparative advantages in temporary migration of workforce. So, it is essential that the developed countries extend commercially meaningful liberalisation commitments on such temporary migration, he felt.
He stressed the LDCs should be given the opportunity to increase their share of world trade to three per cent by 2007 and seven per cent by 2010 through duty and quota free market access, realistic and flexible rules of origin, substantially expanded special and differential treatment and separate GSP scheme.
Director of Development Division of the WTO Alberto Campeas hoped issues like market access and special and differential treatment will be addressed at the Cancun conference.
Head of Special Programme for the LDCs, UNCTAD, Habib Ovane stressed more integration of the LDCs in the multilateral trading system. UNCTAD would help the LDCs more to formulate their trade policies, he added.
Bangladesh Representative to Geneva and Chairman of the WTO LDCs Consultative Group Coordinator Toufiq Ali also spoke at the opening session.
Dhaka Declaration to dwell on more market
Nazmul Ahsan
http://www.dailystarnews.com/
The demand for enhancing the market share of least developed countries (LDCs)
in global trade has figured prominently in the final draft of the Dhaka
Declaration to be made on the concluding day of the LDCs' three-day
conference that began yesterday, official sources said.
To achieve the goal, the draft demands a binding commitment for duty-free and restriction-free market access of all products from the LDCs to the developed countries on a secure, long-term and predictable basis.
The 11-point agenda included in the draft declaration was placed yesterday for discussion by the delegations of 39 LDCs, out of the 49, attending the trade ministers' conference.
The Dhaka Declaration will be adopted tomorrow on the basis of the final draft.
The stakeholders were unanimous on the final draft during their discussion yesterday.
Bangladesh hosts the second trade ministers' meeting of the LDCs, organised mainly to take a common stand on the WTO (World Trade Oraginsation) issues ahead of its fifth ministerial meeting in September this year at Cancun in Mexico.
According to statistics with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), market share of the LDCs in global trade declined from two per cent in 1960 to one per cent in 1970. The share further declined from 0.8 per cent in 1980 to 0.4 per cent in 2001.
Export from the LDCs has been hit hard due to compliance requirements of the developed countries and their protectionist measures in the name of environment, labour and workplace standards, sources pointed out.
" Our experience of these past years has been that the global trading regime is making our developmental effort more difficult -- the potential opportunities have remained largely elusive and compliance requirements have continued to be expensive, and that only the attendant risks have been too real," observed Dr. Debapriya Bhattachariya, Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
The WTO trade ministers' meetings at Marrakesh, Singapore, Brussels and Doha made commitments to allow duty-free market access of the LDCs' products and integrate them into the multilateral trading system.
But little has so far been done in line with those commitments, Minister for Industries and Trade of the United Republic of Tanzania Dr. Juma A Ngasongwa told The Daily Star yesterday.
" All the LDCs have to be united to uphold their legitimate interest in the global trade to enhance their share and to speed up implementation of the pledges made by the developed countries through different ministerial meetings of the WTO," he added.
Dr. Juma attends the trade ministers' conference in Dhaka.
The final draft also demands flexible rules of origin to match the industrial capacity of the LDCs.
It emphasises implementation of special and differential (S&D) treatment to reverse the continued marginalisation of the LDCs.
The final draft further demands " Free access to developed country markets for temporary movement of natural persons, particularly unskilled and semi-skilled service providers, simplifying visa procedures and without asking for economic needs test (ENT). "
The agenda contained in the draft included substantial increase in technical and financial assistance to the LDCs for development of their institutions and capacity for increasing trade. It seeks devising appropriate compensatory mechanism to offset the erosion of preference margins due to lowering of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) tariffs.
It further demands exemption of the LDCs' exports from anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguard measures. Expeditious action for the accession of the LDCs and a permanent and legally sound solution for the LDCs have also been sought in case of difficulties in making effective use of compulsory licensing.
NGOs' 15 proposals for WTO talks
Star Business Report
http://www.dailystarnews.com/
International and local
NGOs placed a 15-point proposal before the LDC
governments for discussion at a WTO meeting scheduled to be held in Cancun,
Mexico in September this year. At a press briefing in Dhaka yesterday, a platform of 15 local and
international NGOs placed the proposals aiming to uphold trade interest of poor
countries. The proposals came when a ministerial conference of least developed countries
(LDCs) began in Dhaka yesterday.
They called upon the developing countries and LDCs to reject patents of life forms.
ActionAid-Bangladesh, Consumers International and South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE) led the platform of the NGOs.
The proposals included a framework agreement on differentiated rights and obligations, non-reciprocal preferences in terms of tariff and quota-free access for all LDC exports with flexible rules of origin
They, in the proposals, also demanded free movement of natural persons.
They demanded access to affordable medicines for all and voiced against any patenting of life
LDC's policy flexibility in agriculture for food security should be kept in provision, the proposals said.
The NGOs called for debt cancellation of LDCs and greater coherence in global economic policy making.
They demanded investigation into WTO barriers to technology transfer.
S Sothi Rachagan, regional director of Consumers International, Asia Pacific Office, Ratnakar Adhikari, executive director of South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE), M Anwar Hashim, president of Centre for Sustainable Development, Nasreen Huq, country director of ActionAid Bangladesh, spoke at the press briefing.
Rich nations accused of double standard
LDC officials’ meeting to work out strategy for Cancun
conference
Staff Reporter
Senior officials of 38 of world’s least developed countries (LDCs) began deliberations here yesterday to draw up an agenda ahead of the fifth WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico on September 10-14, focusing on declining foreign aid and trade barriers and the need for unrestricted market access of their goods.
The officials meeting precedes the LDC trade ministers meeting scheduled to begin here tomorrow with the participation of 23 countries at the ministers’ level.
Inaugurating the officials meeting, LDC leaders emphasised the need for strong political will to set out the negotiation agenda and sending a clear message to the developed countries that the common concerns of the LDCs must be addressed.
The negotiating agenda would be set out as "Dhaka Declaration" at the ministers’ meeting.
About 2oo officials from 49 countries are participating in the deliberations while 23 ministers will participate in the ministers meeting.
"The road from Dhaka to Cancun is not easy, but a strong political will should be there," Bangladesh Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury told the LDC officials meet, listing the deciding factors. "First and foremost," he said, "the LDCs require secure, predictable and meaningful market access of our goods." "For this, we need duty-free and quota-free access for all our products. Market access should be unrestricted," the Bangladesh minister said, referring to LDCs’ inability to avail of preferential trade facilities for non-tariff barriers like rules of origin.
"Let us not sugar-coat anything and let us face reality," Commerce Minister said.
"I am very, very worried about non-implementation of some of the issues decided in earlier meetings and we have to make best use of this conference," he said.
Chowdhury said least-developed countries needed to ensure they "come out happy" from the September 10-14 World Trade Organisation conference in the Mexican resort of Cancun.
The gathering of the world’s ministers in Mexico will follow a similar meeting in November 2001 in the Qatar capital Doha. Bangladesh, which took over leadership of the least-developed countries (LDC) bloc from Tanzania, urged poorer nations to develop their export bases. "After all, without goods to trade, there is no prospect to gain from trade," Chowdhury said.
He also accused the developed world of double standards. "When we try to provide subsidy to promote a particular industry or product, we are advised not to do so. Yet the developed countries continue to subsidise their agriculture to the tune of about one billion dollars a day," he said.
Besides meaningful market access, Chowdhury said the least-developed countries needed to work to promote the free movement of labour while at the same time building institutions to check the "brain drain" to the developed world. Market-related issues, such as lifting duty and quotas on goods from least-developed countries, are high on the agenda as the delegates are largely unanimous in their positions.
Tawfiq Ali, Bangladesh Permanent Representative to UN in Geneva and the chairman of the least-developed countries’ consultative group on the WTO, warned that positions must take into account a decrease in foreign aid.
"Aid is going down and so our focus is trade," said Ali, a Bangladeshi diplomat.
Representatives from LDCs blasted the developed countries for their double standard in following WTO rules. They also alleged that the earlier commitments made in the WTO agreements had not been fulfilled by the rich nations.
They demanded some special facility from the richer nations in order to make their economy vibrant. The demand list includes; duty-free and quota-free access for all their products, unrestricted market access, allowing temporary movement of natural persons from developing countries, exempting LDCs from anti-dumping or other contingency measures from developed and other developing countries.
The developed countries did not face the WTO rules during the early stages of their development but when LDCs tried to provide a subsidy to promote a particular industry or product, they were advised not to do so, said Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury while addressing the session.
"Yet, the developed countries continue to subsidise their agriculture to the tune of about dollar one billion a day. The World Bank estimates that a Japanese cow gets a subsidy of dollar seven and half a day and a cow in the European Union gets more than two dollars a day. To put this in context, about a billion people survive on less than a dollar a day. Are the WTO rules to protect cows in developed countries, in preference to the underprivileged in our countries?" he added.
Over the last few decades, LDCs’ share of world trade has declined drastically, despite an increase in the numbers of LDCs. In the last decade alone, the overall growth in world trade has been about eight per cent annually, while the growth of LDC trade has been only two percent, Khosru observed adding that in some cases, the value of LDCs’ exports had actually declined.
He said that the LDCs were assured of flexibility in implementing the WTO Agreement but their expectations had not been fulfilled. "Our institutions have not been developed, but we are asked to take on our obligations," he said.
Referring to the Special and Differential Treatment for the LDCs’, mentioned in the WTO Agreement, he said that these provisions were designed to provide the LDCs policy space to promote their development but later it was found many of the S&D provisions were not mandatory on their developed countries.
He said that due to the non tariff barriers imposed by the developed nations, the LDCs could not get the real benefit of duty-free or preferential facilities.
Addressing the session Dr Juma A Nagasongwa, Minister for Industry and Trade of Tanzania said that the objectives of the Zanzibar meeting were realised, and LDCs had reasonable success in influencing the outcome of the 4th WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha in November 2001. "In negotiations there is a give – and - take situation. We did not get all what we wanted, neither did we give away all. This meeting here in Dhaka is a testimony of our resolve to maintain the Zanzibar spirit" he added.
He said that these were major concerns of the LDCs that need to be addressed by the multilateral trading system. In this connection he mentioned the supply side constraints in respect of infrastructure, human resource capacity of the economies of LDCs and the need for predictable and easy market access for LDC exports. The implementation issues in the context of the existing WTO Agreements should also be prioritised, he added.
"Tanzania who had the privilege of hosting and spearheading the pre-Doha LDC consultations, has now the honour to pass over that responsibility before Cancun to the able hands of Bangladesh. I therefore call upon all members of the LDC group to render support to Bangladesh to whom we entrust the difficult task of coordinating our views towards a collective position on the key issues, not only among the LDC group but also to form a common front with other groupings such as Asia, Africa, Caribbean, the Pacific and other countries with similar development aspirations’ he said.
He noted that some important deadlines in the Doha development agenda had not been met on priority issues to developing and least developed countries.
He urged the senior officials who were representing the LDCs, to give a well considered opinion and advice so that the LDC ministers can get well prepared for-the discussions at Cancun on this matter.
He said that the Cancun meeting was going to be significant on how the negotiations develop. Pressing issues such as the crisis in commodity prices, implementation issues and market access for developing countries in the face of agriculture and other trade distorting subsidies and non-tariff barriers in rich countries must get greater attention in the WTO agenda. And of immediate devastating concern is the trade-related intellectual property regime that puts poor countries at huge disadvantage now and more so in the future, the Tanzanian minister observed.
"The WTO agenda has to take into account the concerns of developing countries.
Among others, Commerce secretary Suhel Ahmed, UNCTAD representative Habib Ouane and chairman of the WTO LDCs’ consultative group coordinator Dr Toufiq Ali also spoke on the occasion.
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