Organised by CPD and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), the dialogue on “Recapturing the Momentum in the Post-Bali Process of the WTO,” was held on Sunday 22 November 2014.
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Published in New Age
Take preparations for negotiations on new, emerging trade issues
Experts advise LDCs at CPD-FES dialogue
Trade experts on Saturday suggested that the least developed countries including Bangladesh should immediately undertake necessary preparation to reap benefits from negotiations on new and emerging trade issues and to bring momentum in the current trade negotiations of the World Trade Organisation.
LDCs will face difficulties and fail to reap the potential benefits from those issues including investment, connectivity, regional trade and technology if they do not prepared them through proper homework, they said.
At a dialogue on recapturing the momentum in the post-Bali process of the WTO at a hotel in Dhaka, they also suggested that LDCs should take initiatives to narrow down the differences among them particularly on duty- and quota-free access in the markets of different developed countries.
Local think-tank Centre for Policy Dialogue and Germany-based Friedrich Ebert Stiftung organised the dialogue.
Expressing dissatisfaction over no visible progress on the outcome of the ministerial level meeting held in Bali, Indonesia in 2013, experts said that there was no progress in providing LDCs with full DF-QF market access in the developed and developing countries.
Even no progress is yet to be happened regarding operationalisation of the services waiver offered to LDCs and implementation of the preferential rules of origin, they said.
‘The current trade negotiation of WTO, known as the Doha Development Round, should be successfully completed within the shortest possible time addressing the LDCs’ concerns including DF-QF market access and operationalisation of services waiver,’ CPD distinguished fellow Debapriya Bhattacharya said.
After completion of Doha Round, a new negotiation focusing LDCs interests in new and emerging economic issues including investment, connectivity, global supply chain and climate change should be introduced, he said.
Richard O Cunningham, chairman of Washington-based Cordell Hull Institute, said that LDCs should adopt new approach of trade focusing new and emerging markets instead of giving extensive importance on markets of European Union and USA.
‘Such new approach can change the existing trade sequence,’ he said.
He said that LDCs should focus on involvement in global supply chain and exporting services as both have become the most important issues in global trade scenario.
CPD executive director Mustafizur Rahman said the implementation of the decision of giving full DF-QF market access to LDCs particularly in the USA market was most important for Bangladesh as the major exportable products including apparel items were not getting such access there under the US GSP scheme.
Some African countries are opposing the issue of providing DF-QF market access for apparel items in the USA market fearing that their exports would be hampered, he said.
‘LDCs should take initiatives to narrow down such differences,’ Mustafizur said.
He said that LDCs needed serious work to articulate their demands and concerns in the negotiations.
Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations trade policy and WTO Research Programme chair professor Anwarul Hoda advised LDCs to gain some meaningful results from the negotiations so that they could achieve all the goals. He also recommended incorporation of mega trade block to attain cherished results.
China Centre for International Development director Longyue Zhao emphasised on the issues of connectivity especially region-to-region and country-to-country connectivity to overcome the difficulties related to emerging and new trade issues.
CPD chairman Rehman Sobhan and FES country representative Henrik Maihack also spoke at the dialogue while experts from Brazil, China, India, Pakistan, Nepal and South Africa attended.
Published in The Financial Express
Little done after Doha, Bali talks
Experts at meet over post-Bali conference vent frustration
FE Report
Little progress has been made in implementing the measures taken in WTO conferences, especially in Doha and Bali ministerial meets, for the benefit of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and developing nations.
Speakers at a dialogue here Saturday on ‘Recapturing the Momentum in the Post-Bali Process of the WTO’ vented such frustration, as the stakeholders, including Bangladesh, have long been left in the lurch.
They deplored that none of the decisions, including preferential treatment and market access for LDCs, was yet fulfilled.
The LDCs, they said, are still unsure whether the recommendations of WTO’s Bali round of conference on global trade regime will be adopted or not.
Such scepticism stems from the fact that the developed and developing countries have failed to reach a consensus on many of the issues.
Organised by private think-tank Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), the meet highlighted the urgency of immediate conclusion of the Doha Round and preparing for the post-Bali agenda focusing more on setting new rules to reap benefit from upcoming negotiations.
“Doha Development Round initiated much promise, but not much progress as yet,” said CPD Executive Director Dr Mustafizur Rahman while presenting his paper on ‘Whilst the LDC package in Bali was a progress, developments in the past one year in Geneva show that not much has happened that can be turned encouraging.
LDCs, speakers said, will need to take initiative to narrow down the differences within the poor-country club, especially regarding duty-free and quota-free (DFQF) market access.
They also have to undertake vigorous homework to identify their needs and build partnership with other LDCs to face post-Bali negotiations.
The CPD organized the dialogue in partnership with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), Bangladesh Office. Held at a local hotel, the dialogue was addressed, among others, by
Professor Anwarul Hoda, Chair Professor, Trade Policy and WTO Research Programme, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), Mr Richard O. Cunningham, Chairman, Cordell Hull Institute, Washington, D.C., and Professor Longyue Zhao, Director, China Center for International Development, Nankai University, China.
CPD Chairman Professor Rehman Sobhan presided while its Distinguished Fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya moderated the dialogue participated by academics, researchers, and representatives from various government and development organisations.
At the ninth ministerial meet of the WTO in Bali in December last year, a consensus was reached on three important issues: trade facilitation, food security and LDC package.
The developed countries were supposed to adopt them in July this year, but they were yet to give final approval for differences of opinions, especially because of India’s concern for its national food security.
Professor Anwarul Hoda, however, hinted that some progress had already been made between the USA and India very recently regarding WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement TFA.
In this context, he expressed his optimism about the signing of the tangled agreement.
“I hope that the blockade created over signing TFA will disappear soon,” he said.
For Bangladesh and Asian LDCs, the issue of DFQF market access is very important as their major export-apparels – are not covered under the US GSP scheme, opined some of the speakers.
Published in Dhaka Tribune
Bali Package makes hardly any progress in one year
Tribune Report
There was hardly any progress in implementation of the decisions declared under the “Bali Package” one year ago, particularly for safeguarding interest of least developed countries (LDCs), trade analysts said in Dhaka yesterday.
They, however, see light at the end of the tunnel once LDCs takes initiatives to narrow down the differences within them and continues to negotiate with the world economies to yield positive results.
The trade experts were speaking at a dialogue on “Recapturing the Momentum in the Post-Bali Process of the WTO,” arranged by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) at a city hotel.
Local and overseas trade experts took part in the discussion with CPD distinguished fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya in the chair.
Briefing media on the outcome of the dialogue, Debapriya said agreements made in the ninth ministerial meeting in Bali, Indonesia one year ago found hardly any progress, particularly in the interest of LDCs.
He said, recently, a consensus was reached between USA and India on food security, which is expected to help move the Doha Development Round forward.
But most of the speakers said the world has changed a lot since the Doha Round, as new economies like India and China has emerged. “Moreover, no country alone can produce one product, it requires involvement of a lot of countries and the service sector also saw a lot of development,” he said.
He said now many countries have initiated moves for multilateral agreement with limited scale avoiding WTO, which means multilateral trading system is important for the economic development.
“Considering this reality, it is time to implement Doha Development Round as far as we can. However, this development over the years has also created new scope that needs to be utlised,” he said.
What needs to be done for the LDCs is to take preparation for beginning negotiation with the world economies and to bring reform in the domestic policies, he said.
CPD executive director Professor Mustafizur Rahman in his keynote paper said after five years of impasse, the Bali package was able to infuse a new life into the stalled Doha Round, and in a way helped salvage the WTO as a negotiating forum and fulcrum of multilateral trade system.
The Bali package with its four pillars of Development and LDC issues, trade facilitation, agriculture and cotton – concerned a number of areas where LDCs had both offensive and defensive interests, he said.
It was expected that the work progamme agreed in Bali would be followed by subsequent negotiations in Geneva to arrive at solution that will advance LDC interests.
However, he said, regrettably one year after Bali, there is hardly anything to show for as regards the 10 decision-points adopted in Bali.
The post-Bali work on DF-QF has been progressing in Geneva without any meaningful engagement on the part of members. Only notable outcome was the adoption of Chile’s DF-QF scheme for LDCs, which grants DF-QF access for 99.5% of its tariff lines, according to the keynote paper.
On preferential rules of origin and services waiver, the paper said there is no message yet. However, after submission of the collective request, there has been no concrete progress. Indeed, no country has granted voluntary preference to the LDCs since the adaptation of waiver in 2011, it said.
Professor Rahman recommended that LDCs will need to take initiatives to narrow down the differences within the LDC group, need homework, need to articulate their demands and need to build coalition and partnerships that will matter in advancing LDC interests in post-Bali negotiations in Geneva during the run up to Ministerial Conference-10.
Director of Global Economics in the Global Governance Programme Bernard Hoekman presented a keynote paper on The Bali Trade Facilitation Agreement and Rule-making in the WTO Milestone, Mistake or Mirage.
He said from the perceptive of trade facilitation outcomes on the ground, it may not matter too much whether the TFA becomes part of WTO.
“Insofar as one takes the view that the primary value of the TFA is to provide a focal points at the country level for trade facilitation reforms, much of value of the TFA lies in the handwork of agreeing on a set of good practices and norms and the implementation mechanisms that the TFA calls for,” he said.
The weakness of TFA in terms of offering foreign export interests strong mechanisms to enforce its provisions and thus to make the TFA self-enforcing means other institutional agreements can and must be used to support implementation, including regional integration arrangements and concentrate action by multilateral development agencies, he said.
CPD Chairman Rehman Sobhan, Chair Professor Trade policy and WTO Research Programme Professor Anwarul Hoda, Chairman of Cordell Hull Institute, Washington Richard O Cunningham, Director of China Center for International Development, Nankai University, China Longyue Zhao, were the panel speakers, among others, at the dialogue.
Published in The Independent
One year on, little done on Bali package, says CPD
Staff Reporter
Regrettably, there is hardly anything to show as regards the 10 points adopted at the ninth ministerial conference (MC-9) of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), in Bali in December 2013, the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) said.
The Bali package with its four pillars of development — LDC issues, trade facilitation, agriculture, and cotton –concerned a number of areas where LDCs had both offensive and defensive interest, said the CPD’s executive director, Prof Mustafizur Rahman.
He said this at a dialogue organised by the CPD — Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) on “Recapturing the Momentum in the Post-Bali Process of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)” — at a city hotel yesterday (Saturday).
Presided over by distinguished fellow of the CPD, Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Chairman, CPD, Prof. Rehman Sobhan, Chair Professor, Trade Policy and WTO Research Programme, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) Prof. Anwarul Hoda, Chairman, Cordell Hull Institute, Washington, DC Richard O Cunningham, and Director, China Centre for International Development, Nankai University, China Professor Longyue Zhao made interventions as panel speakers at the session.
Director, Global Economics in the Global Governance Programme, Professor Bernard Hoekman, Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Italy Robert Schuman make the keynote presentation.
Mustafizur Raman said LDCs will need to take the initiative to narrow down differences within the LDC group.
“The LDCs need a new approach to trade — not necessary to set a target only for European Union and the United States of America (USA),” Richard O Cunningham, Chairman, Cordell Hull Institute, Washington DC, said.
Cunningham suggested that the LDCs should invest in the education sector which is very important and outcome- oriented. It is also safe investment, he said.
Professor Longyue Zhao gave importance to re-evaluation of traditional formula for trade and domestic policy.
“E-commerce is getting a momentum around the world which is an important outcome of globalisation. But physical connectivity is important for ensuring quality,” he said.
He said marketing is very important for boosting the market and maintaining the supply chain of products.
Prof Zhao suggested that new formula should be adopted, instead of traditional trend of commerce, as well as adaptation of information technology.
In his presentation, Prof. Mustafizur Rahman said LDCs will have to do their homework and serious work will need to be done by them to articulate their demands.
Published on BSS Online
LDCs urged to narrow down differences among them
Speakers at a dialogue today suggested the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to take initiatives to narrow down the differences among them within the shortest possible time through appropriate homework.
They opined if the outcome of the Doha-round is possible to solve as soon as possible, the LDCs could be able to concentrate on the new issues that have emerged recently, otherwise they have to face difficulties.
However, all the participants at the dialogue expressed their dissatisfaction over the less implementation of the outcome of the ministerial-level meeting in Bali.
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Bangladesh office organized the dialogue titled “Recapturing the Momentum in the Post-Bali Process of the WTO” in a city hotel.
Experts from home and abroad including Brazil, China, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Africa, took part at the dialogue.
CPD distinguished fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya moderated the session while Professor Rehman Sobhan, Chairman of CPD, chaired the dialogue. Henrik Maihack, country representative of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, gave welcome speech.
Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Executive Director of CPD, made a keynote presentation on the topic.
He said the LDCs have to undertake home work, especially identification of category-specific concerns with respect to Trade Facility Agreement (TFA).
Mustafizur also stressed on serious work that needed to be done by the LDCs to articulate their demands and concerns including possible ramifications if food stockpiling for LDCs food securities for their trade interests.
Professor Anwarul Huda advised the LDCs to salvage some meaningful results from the negotiations so that they could achieve all the goals.
He emphasized on the common rules for the developing countries rather than specific rules to avail the highest result for the LDCs.
Huda recommended for incorporating mega trade block to attain cherished results.
Richard Caningham stressed on the changing of negotiation approaches and doing business to reap maximum benefits from bargain from the WTO.
He advocated for the implementation of trade facility agreement.
Professor Leegye Zhao of China emphasized on the issues of connectivity especially region-to-region and country-to-country to overcome the difficulties.
Published in The Daily Star
LDCs must participate more in world economy
Trade analysts suggest at discussion organised by CPD and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
Star Business Report
The least-developed countries, including Bangladesh, should re-evaluate their domestic policies to improve investment climate to better integrate with the global value chain, analysts said yesterday.
“You have to improve your investment environment. If you just stick there with traditional issues you will miss the opportunities,” Longyue Zhao, director of China Centre for International Development, said at a seminar in Dhaka.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung jointly organised the event, which focused on the issues of the LDCs following the ninth World Trade Organisation ministerial meet in Bali in December last year.
Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of CPD, said a final product now is not manufactured in a single country; it is made in many countries in an integrated manner.
Many countries are going for plurilateral agreements, which are agreements among more than two countries but not a great many, bypassing the WTO.
Meanwhile, Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of CPD, said LDCs also need to take steps to narrow down the differences within the group and identify specific concerns on trade facilitation matters.
Bangladesh should reduce tension with its African counterparts for duty-free and quota-free access for apparel in the US market, he said.
“Partnership with other LDCs is needed so that we can do our homework and be really prepared and safeguard our interests and concerns,” he said while presenting a paper titled ‘World Trade Organisation in the post-Bali Phase: Whither LDC issues’.
Rahman said coalition building and partnerships will matter in advancing the interests of LDCs, now 49, in post-Bali negotiations at the WTO headquarters in Geneva in the run-up to the tenth WTO ministerial meet.
Of the 49 LDCs, 34 are not WTO members and the degree of openness of their economies has been on the rise. At present, 59 percent of their GDP come from the exports of goods and services. These countries account for 1.4 percent of global GDP, said Rahman. Many trade-related issues of priority interests to the LDCs have continued to remain under discussion but unaddressed over the past years, according to the CPD executive director.
Whilst the LDC package in Bali was a progress, not much has happened in the last one year, he added. Zhao said a lot of new issues have come up since the launch of Doha Round. At the same time, many opportunities have also opened up.
Developing countries and LDCs may need to change, re-evaluate their issues to determine the most important ones, he said.
Taking the reality under consideration, a new round of talks may be initiated through a quick but meaningful conclusion of the Doha round of negotiations, Bhattacharya said, adding that it has to be concluded by safeguarding the interests of LDCs.
CPD Chairman Rehman Sobhan; Chairman of Washinton-based Cordell Hull Institute Richard O Cunningham; and Chair Professor of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations Anwarul Hoda, also spoke.