The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Bangladesh needs to strengthen its negotiation capacity to realise benefits from the world trade initiatives, experts said at a seminar yesterday.

They also suggested for a new trade initiative (NTI) from the least developed countries (LDCs) for achieving special and differential treatment in the form of full duty and quota free market access to the developed and advanced developing countries.

They said a more flexible and unified Rules of Origin (RoO) is necessary to provide more market access to the least developed countries by the developed nations.

"Without a major trade initiative, mere wishful thinking is not going to change our precarious situation," former Commerce Secretary Suhel Ahmed Chowdhury told a seminar titled 'Duty Free Access Provided by Developed Countries' organised by the FBCCI at its conference room.

He said the new trade initiative should incorporate four major trade related deficiencies of Bangladesh and other LDCs. These are trade-related infrastructure development, removing supply-side constraints, assured market access and duty-free access.

Former Secretary and FBCCI Adviser SM Al Hossaini presided over the seminar where Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) Vice Chairman Shahab Ullah made keynote presentation.

Mentioning that the duty-free quota-free (DFQF) access depends on mutual trusts between the donors and their trading partners the EPB Vice Chairman said, "If there are failures in administrative cooperation, duty-free facility may be withdrawn."

He said the government is now working to prepare a policy paper to pursue the US government so that any new trade bill could help benefit Bangladesh without contradicting the interests of African LDCs.

The former BEPZA chairman and chief of the International Trade Centre (ITC) said Bangladesh and other LDCs should focus more on capacity building efforts.

FBCCI leader Manjur Ahmed said Tariff Commission, Commerce Ministry and the FBCCI should work together to strengthen the negotiation capacity to get better results from the WTO conference.

DCCI official Ferdous Ara and FBCCI Secretery General Syed Jamaluddin also spoke on the occasion.