The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Commerce Adviser Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman yesterday emphasised the need for building trade capacity to utilise the opportunity that came out in the recent World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks.

"Negotiations at WTO and other fronts are critical, but what we do at home is even more important," he told a dialogue on the outcome of recent WTO talks at the CIRDAP auditorium.

The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) organised the dialogue titled 'Collapse of Recent WTO Talks and Bangladesh: Experience and Options' with its chairman Prof Rehman Sobhan in the chair.

Economists, researchers, academics, bureaucrats, trade experts and the members of Bangladesh delegation to the recent WTO mini-ministerial took part in the discussion. Bangladesh Ambassador to UN missions and WTO in Geneva Dr Debapriya Bhattachachariya presented a keynote paper at the dialogue.

The speakers at the dialogue expressed satisfaction over the progress made in favour of Bangladesh during the talks and stressed the need for preparing the country for future talks as they expect the activities of Doha Round to resume in September this year.

Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman called upon the policymakers to spot the opportunities out of the WTO talks and advance those opportunities through building partnerships within the country among the government, private sector, think-tank bodies and individual trade experts.

He also emphasised on building partnerships with neighbouring countries and other trading partners in the WTO to derive maximum benefit out of it.

"We have to remain alert about the opportunities," he said, adding that

Pakistan and Sri Lanka tapped better market access in the Hong Kong

Ministerial than the LDCs.

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya suggested locking-in the progress so far made in the Doha Round like NAMA text on duty-free and quota-free market access and recognition of Bangladesh as disproportionately affected country (DAC).

He also emphasised on enhanced preparation for the issues on the table like tariff lines for DAC, rules of origin and Mode-4 request list while engaging in other outstanding issues of anti-dumping rules and extension of geographical indication under TRIPS.

Commerce secretary Feroz Ahmed called for exploring all options --bilateral, regional or multilateral trade negotiation and said Bangladesh has to optimise the trade potentials.