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With the next general election looming, the government may concentrate its energy on the political priorities at the cost of the nation's vital foreign trade interests, a post-Hong Kong review meet was told.
But politics should not obscure the country's priority on the global trade issues, as the Doha development round is to wrap up by the end of 2006.
"I'm worried about the political transition. The government may not be able to devote its resources (to global trade talks)," Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Dr Debapriya Bhattachariya said Thursday.
"2006 is the pre-election year. The same thing happened in 2001. (But) the government should keep its national trade interests above all things", Dr Bhattachariya said while addressing the ICC,B-sponsored meeting.
The Bangladesh chapter of Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) organised the review meeting on "Outcome of the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial: Impact on LDCs", with its President Mahbubur Rahman in the chair.
Commerce Secretary Faruq Ahmed Siddiqui, Research Director of the CPD Dr Mustafizur Rahman, former chairman of the Tariff Commission MA Taslim, and former Caretaker Government Adviser Rokeya Afzal Rahman, among others, addressed the meeting.
Dr Bhattachariya, who is an authority on the multilateral trading system, called upon the government to set up a national committee to reread the Hong Kong Declaration and work out future strategies for the next rounds of global trade negotiations.
"The Commerce Ministry should form the committee and help interpret the text from the Bangladesh perspective. Then, it can be discussed in the cabinet meeting for a political mandate for 2006," he said, calling the next year 'critical' for the country.
"Our Commerce Minister didn't go there with a political mandate," Bhattachariya said, referring to the lack of cabinet decision on the country position in the just-concluded Hong Kong ministerial meeting.
"Unfortunately, this (political mandate) has not been the tradition of Bangladesh for the last 10 years," he said, pointing his finger at the dysfunctional parliamentary democracy.
Stressing the need for an inter-ministerial coordination about dealing with trade issues, Bhattachariya said the finance ministry should also be involved in the WTO process.
"The WTO Cell should be designed in a way so that it can be an inter-ministerial body," he added.
Citing the examples of the United States and India, the economist said the government could look into the possibility of appointing a Special Commerce Secretary to deal with foreign trade issues.
Bhattachariya suggested that the government should re-strengthen both the Geneva Mission and the WTO Advisory Committee to help improve the systematic analysis on the issues.
Similarly, the WTO Cell can be strengthened from foreign funding, he told the elite business audience.
For the first time, Bhattachariya regretted, Bangladesh was excluded from the green room negotiations.
"We were invited to the mini-ministerials, but not to the Green Room parleys. The Green Room meetings ended without calling an Asian LDC there," the economist added.
In his welcome address, the Commerce Secretary said its is still 'premature' to say that the sixth ministerial meeting of the WTO was a success or a failure.
"There are ample of opportunities in the days ahead provided we can carry out negotiations successfully," Siddiqui said.
Bangladesh's export basket is limited, he said, adding that even all apparel items could be left out of the three per cent threshold as promised by the United States.
But the secretary said: "If we can exclude flower and ceramics from three per cent, it will allow us to enhance exports".
In the Hong Kong meet, the world's biggest trading partners, particularly the US, pledged to allow duty-free entry of 97 per cent of products from LDCs to their markets.
Mahbubur Rahman said that 2006 is 'critical' for Bangladesh, given the bitter experience of the country at the Hong Kong ministerial meeting.
"Our negotiations will be important. There is a scope for further negotiations on the Mode-4 under which the country can export unskilled and semi-skilled manpower," the ICC.B chief told the meet.
Dr Mustafizur Rahman said Bangladesh should take advantage of the flexibilities in areas --TRIMS, TRIPS and Mode-4 -- other than the apparel items.
Prof Taslim said it would not be just to blame the government alone for the failure, as the private sector and think tanks were also included in the official delegation.
He underscored the need for more homework to derive benefits out of the provision of temporary migration under service sector.
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