The National Negotiating Multi-stakeholders Committee will be formed shortly to extract benefits from the recently-concluded WTO Hong Kong Ministerial. Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Choudhury said this Tuesday at a dialogue on 'WTO Hong Kong Ministerial: Lessons for Bangladesh' jointly organised by the Centre For Sustainable Development (CSFD) and Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) at the city's Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB). Experts from different organisations, lawmakers and other discussants took part in the dialogue. Altaf said the committee will function under the Director General (DG) of the WTO Cell of the Ministry of Commerce (MoC). He said people from different organisations including chamber leaders, experts, teachers and NGO activists may be included in the committee for the interest of better negotiation in the follow up meetings of the Hong Kong Ministerial. Denying all criticisms, Altaf said 97 per cent quota and duty-free access to the developed markets including USA is a baseline that the LDCs got from the Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting. He said African and Caribbean LDCs could form a strong group, but the Asia Pacific LDCs failed to do so. As a result, the countries belonging to Asia Pacific could not exert pressure on the developed countries, Altaf added. "Under the new WTO deal, Bangladesh will get duty-free access of 339 products to the US markets. Now, we need an orchestrated effort to include our garment products in this list," Altaf said. "We need to wage demonstrations to drum up support in favour of our demand," said former Commerce Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury while sharing his experiences in gaining quota-free market access to Canada. He said during the negotiation for market access to Canada, a group of competitors termed Bangladesh as a competitive country, but they did not succeed in their propaganda as a strong demonstration was launched in foreign countries to realise the demand. Stressing the need for discussion in Mode-4 under the WTO, he said the Geneva Mission of Bangladesh should be made very effective by deploying efficient human resources. Abdur Razzaque, an MP of the main opposition Awami League, said there was a lack of professionals in government for dealing with such an important issues. He questioned about the government's move when Charge D' Affairs of the US Embassy in Bangladesh Judith Chamas said a few months back that Bangladesh would not get duty-free access to the US market. He was critical on the government's open market strategies. He said the local people consume sugar paying over Tk 50 per kg mainly due to government's wrong policies. Suggesting formation of a coalition comprising government officials, NGOs and CSOs, he said the Hong Kong discussion failed mainly due to lack of political skills and leadership abilities. President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Mir Nasir Hossain said the country needs to build capacity both in the public and private sectors to skillfully negotiate on such issues. "We failed to identify our friends. We need to identify our alliances. This is not the end of Doha Round. Now, we need to select the items under 97 per cent categories," Nasir Hossain said while he was presiding over the programme.
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