The least developed countries (LDCs) have urged the WTO’s General Council for the continuation of all support measures, including unilateral trade preferences, after their graduation from the LDC category. Chad, on behalf of the LDC Group, has submitted a communication to the WTO General Council ahead of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12). The LDC Group will go for an intense negotiation to hammer a long-term transition period for the LDCs, keeping the trade benefit unhurt. Bangladesh was included in the LDC list in 1975 and will exit from it in 2026.
Being an LDC country, Bangladesh currently enjoys zero-duty benefits, preferential trade benefits and regional trade benefits on exports to 38 countries, including 28 in the EU. Bangladesh also gets duty-free access to the US for 97 per cent of its products, except readymade garment. After the formal graduation, the country will lose duty-free and quota-free market access to the EU under the “Everything but Arms” initiative for LDCs. According to an impact assessment on LDC graduation by the Planning Commission in 2019, the country would lose $7 billion in export earnings every year after the end of the transition period. By 2031, the amount would balloon to $13 billion.
Not only Bangladesh, other graduating countries will also lose access to the LDC specific international support measures, which have contributed to their socio-economic development. In recognition of these challenges, the UN General Assembly Resolution on smooth transition invites all members of the WTO to consider extending the graduated countries the existing special and differential treatment measures and exemption available to the LDCs for a period appropriate to the development situation of the country concerned. The Covid-19 outbreak significantly reinforces the justification of continuation of LDC benefits as the pandemic risks undoing many LDCs development achievements made so far.
