The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Chief Adviser Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed has requested the leaders of the Group of 8 developed nations (G-8) to concede market-access benefits to all of the least-developed countries for all their products "without discrimination".

The head of caretaker government, as Chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), made the request in a letter to the G-8 leaders, who are preparing for holding the next summit of the bloc as an arbiter in world economy.

Those to whom the letter was addressed are US President George W. Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Disclosing this to the media Tuesday, Foreign Adviser Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said the letter was intended to "sensitize the global economic leadership to the problems confronted by the least-developed countries".

The Foreign Adviser said Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed in the letter pointed to the significant tariff and non-tariff barriers faced by LDC products on developed markets and asked for firm commitments on special and differential treatment for LDCs pending agreements on the Doha Round.

Dr. Iftekhar Chowdhury further stated that the Chief Adviser asked for these market-access benefits "for all products from all LDCs without discrimination".

In the letter he has also emphasized the need for "liberalization of Mode IV services", that is, movement of natural persons across frontiers.

"The issue of environmental vulnerability of most LDCs due to global warming and climate change was also underscored," the Foreign Adviser said, "as well as shocks from global economic downturn." The Chief Adviser has expressed the hope that these issues would receive due attention of the leaders in the forthcoming G-8 Summit in Tokyo, going to take place in July.