The think-tank of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) that joined the Bangladeshi delegation in Nairobi for the four-day WTO conference, which ended recently, underlined that Bangladesh did not gain much from the 10th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as global leaders failed to reach a consensus on key deals.
Also Read – WTO Ministerial Conference 2015: Bangladesh committed to ensure trade benefits to LDCs
In a press conference organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in Dhaka recently, the non-profit civil society initiative, observed that while the least-developed countries like Bangladesh currently enjoy duty-free access for 97 per cent of its goods, thanks to a consensus reached at the Fifth Ministerial Meet of World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Hong Kong, it is not turning out to be beneficial for them. The reason for it, according to CPD is that many countries are leaving out the major export items of the LDCs from the list of products, which qualify for duty-free access. For instance, Bangladesh’s main export item, garment, do not qualify for duty-free access to the USA market, while African LDCs, for which garment is not a major export item, enjoy duty-free access.
Executive Director of CPD Mustafizur Rahman said Bangladesh tried to raise this issue at conference but did not get any support from the African LDCs.
Also Read – 10th WTO Ministerial Conference: Africa triumphs
“Rather, the developed countries agreed to suspend subsidies on cotton so that four African countries can benefit from cotton trade worldwide,” said Rahman.
“I want to say, in future, the cotton price might go up globally, as the developed countries’ decision of suspension of subsidies will come into effect soon,” he added.