June 1, 2003	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1424

DHAKA, May 31: Representatives of poorest nations began here on Saturday a three-day consultation preparatory to the upcoming global trade talks, venting utter disappointment on the developed countries’ failure to keep their commitments.

Setting the tone for discussion by the LDC delegates, Bangladesh — the coordinator of the 49-member group — mooted a 5-point demand for a fair share of global trade.

Some 150 officials from 39 of the least developed countries (LDCs), including 16 trade ministers so far, gathered in the meet.

Their main objective is to prepare collective bargaining points, dubbed Dhaka Declaration, for realizing trade concessions at the fifth ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The WTO ministerial is scheduled for September in the Mexican city of Cancun.

The negotiating agenda for Cancun will be adopted at the Dhaka meet of LDC Trade Ministers, scheduled for Monday (June 2), on the basis of a draft chart being prepared during the two-day deliberations by the officials.

This is a second LDC ministerial meet, after the first one held in Zanzibar, Tanzania, to give inputs to the WTO ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar.

At the Doha meet, the 4th global trade negotiations, LDC demands were acknowledged. But the agreement’s provisions were only treated as “pious wishes”.

“We need to send a strong, clear message to the international community, emphasizing our interests. We represent the weakest link in thread that binds the international community,” Bangladesh Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury said as he inaugurated the meet at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.

The minister placed the five-point demand, for a fair share of global trade for the poorer nations, for consideration of the forum.

The demands insist on unrestricted access — duty-and-quota-free — of all LDC products to the developed markets as well as free flow of natural persons in line with free trade.

Agriculture, pharmaceutical and intellectual property rights remain the key areas. Herein the LDCs are facing trouble in coping with various obligations imposed by the developed members of the WTO.

“Our expectations have not been fulfilled. Our institutions have not been developed, but we are asked to take on our obligations,” Khosru said.

In this context, he referred to special and differential treatment for the LDCs stipulated in the WTO agreements.

He said the LDCs must be exempt from anti-dumping or other contingency measures from developed and other developing countries.

Juma A Ngasongwa, Trade and Industry Minister of Tanzania, regretted that the commitments made at the Doha WTO ministerial round were not implemented whereas new obligations for the LDCs came down.

He mentioned a supply-side constraint which, he stressed, must be addressed jointly taking assistance from the stronger partners in world trade.

“Capacity to participate in the global economy must be built,” the Tanzanian minister said and called for unity of the LDC members to face the challenges stemming from the WTO regime.

Director of WTO’s Development Division Alberto Campeas told the session that his organization had taken some programmes for improvement of the capacity of weaker partners. The acknowledgements made earlier were under process of being given effect.

However, the total amount of technical assistance budget of the WTO is roughly $16 million.