Published in The People’s Time on Monday, 2 March 2015.
Dhaka must prepare to enter developed market: Mustafizur Rahman
Massive opportunities will be created for least developed countries (LDCs) such as Bangladesh if the developed nations open their market with services waiver, CPD executive director Prof. Mustafizur Rahman says.
However, he insists, Bangladesh is yet to get ready to take advantage of such facility, if and when it is provided, by preparing with skilled manpower, research and policy supports.
“We must be ready from now so that once the market is opened, we can exploit the maximum potential,” Prof. Mustafiz said in an interview with Prothom Alo.
The researcher, referring to study reports, mentioned that if only 3 percent of the labour market of the developed countries is opened for the LDCs, they (LDCs) would secure a market of $150 billion.
The developed countries are scheduled to apprise the WTO in next July of their positions especially barriers to providing services waiver they promised earlier for the LDC members.
Bangladesh, the spokesperson of the 34 active LDCs in the World Trade Organisation, is a major contender for trade facilities. A few sectors such as skilled workforce and nursing services have been identified.
“We’ve to raise the quality of education so that we can meet the demands in the developed countries,” the chief of the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) said.
Almost since the inception of the WTO in 1995, Dhaka, as the LDCs’ coordinator, has been demanding duty-free market access to the developed countries – a demand that has not been granted at the WTO level. Prof. Mustafiz pointed out that a major success of Bangladesh is to keep the agenda alive for years.
Bangladesh enjoys duty-free access to the European Union market but on the basis of a bilateral concession, not multilateral arrangement. “The current concession can be terminated any time if they want,” he added.
In 2005, the issue of duty-free and quota-free access for 97 percent of goods to the market of the developed countries came up for discussion at the Hong Kong ministerial meeting of the WTO. “But keeping restriction for 3 percent of the goods was enough to keep our major products such as garments out of the positive list. That is how the WTO decisions could not be effective,” he pointed out.
Prof. Mustafiz mentioned that Dhaka is not yet well-equipped with manpower, research base and legal preparations to bargain hard at the WTO level unlike what the advanced countries did in the recent past.
He emphasised the importance of strengthening the knowledge base on WTO and trade matters at the universities and the relevant government offices such as commerce and foreign affairs ministries.