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Dhaka will seek duty-free and quota-free facility at the three-day WTO ministerial meeting to be held in Geneva on November 30, said commerce minister M Faruk Khan Monday.
Commerce ministers of all the member countries will participate in the seventh ministerial meeting to set the future course of global trade.
"I will raise five issues including global recession and its impact on Bangladesh, climate change, service waiver for LDCs and no restriction on food export when LDCs want to import grain," Mr Faruk said at a press conference.
"Every commerce minister will have three minutes to raise and discuss the issues at the plenary session," he said.
A 17-member delegation will take part in the meeting and Dhaka has taken its full preparation to negotiate in the meeting, he added.
The minister, however, said such discussion has been going on for several years and no concrete result is expected from the meeting.
"The ministerial meeting is taking place at a time when Doha trade negotiation is moving ahead very slowly," he said.
The Geneva meeting is taking place after four years of the Hong Kong meet held in 2005.
"Bangladesh has been seriously affected by global recession and climate change and it should get at least the same facility the disproportionately affected countries (DAC) will get," Mr Faruk said.
The DAC facility stipulates that duty on RMG export from Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be reduced to 5.0 per cent within five years after the WTO negotiations are over, but for least developed countries (LDC) including Bangladesh, the time limit is 10 years.
A country is not only affected by economic factors but also climatic factors and the delegation will explain before the WTO meeting that Dhaka is going to face catastrophic situation if immediate measures are not taken, he said.
"Prime minister is going to take part in Copenhagen climate summit where Bangladesh is going to seek a big fund to protect the country," added.
The commerce minister of SAARC countries will have meetings on sideline on November 30 and it is expected that they would support the Bangladesh demand, the commerce minister said.
Mr Faruk claimed that there was no division between LDCs from Africa and Asia.
"We discussed the entire gamut of the trade issues in the LDCs ministerial meeting held in October and reached a consensus," he said.
Regarding movement of natural person, he said Dhaka will negotiate to ensure free flow of labour. |
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