BSS, Dhaka :
The government would seek strong support from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to expand global trade with greater access to developed markets.
As a member of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Bangladesh is being offered duty-free and quota-free market access to around 39 countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan and members of the European Union.
The United States is offering similar trade concession to a large number of Bangladeshi products, but the country’s prime export-earning sector readymade garment has been kept out of this privilege despite repeated requests for consideration.
While the issue came forward at the first Trade and Framework Forum Agreement (TICFA) meeting, held in Dhaka in April, Assistant United States Trade Representative (USTR) for South Asia Michael Delaney advised Bangladesh to negotiate with the WTO for duty-free and quota-free market access.
Against this backdrop, the government would seek strong supports and initiatives from WTO during the Dhaka visit of the chief of the world trade watchdog, official sources said.
Director General of WTO Roberto Azevedo is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka tomorrow (Tuesday) on a two-day visit to discuss trade-related issues with government officials and private sector entrepreneurs.
Azevedo is expected to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed and hold a meeting with business leaders before traveling to Kathmandu to meet with Nepalese authorities and businesspeople on June 4 and 5.
Roberto Azevedo is the sixth DG of the WTO and his appointment took effect from September 1, 2013, for a four-year term.
During his two-day visit, a lot of interactions at the government and private levels would happen on implementation of the Bali Package, Commerce Secretary Mahbub Ahmed told journalists.
The Bali Package, which based on the agreement to allow the LDCs, including Bangladesh, to get duty-free and quota-free market access in an expanded manner, was adopted at the 9th ministerial conference of the WTO in Bali, Indonesia in December, 2013.
Despite the agreement, many countries have not yet provided the LDCs with duty-free and quota-free market access. Dhaka will raise this issue during the meeting with Azevedo, so the WTO takes effective steps to this effect before its next ministerial meeting.
Earlier in 2012, Bangladesh urged for an end to the deadlock in Doha negotiation during the visit of the then WTO chief, Pascal Lamy. Dhaka also raised the issue regarding the waiver agreed under the Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), providing preferential market access to the LDCs.
Besides the duty-free and quota-free market access, Bangladesh is expecting extension of the deadline for Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
by the WTO.
The TRIPS deadline, which will expire for pharmaceutical products in 2016, would limit the market for LDCs as most of its members require more time to adopt it, Geneva-based International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) said earlier.
Official sources said it was unlikely that the TRIPS would be an issue at the meeting with the WTO chief. Industry people, however, recommended that the meeting would be a scope for renewing the request to expand the TRIPS deadline, which would help the country’s booming pharmaceutical industry consolidate its global market.
