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LDCs to seek end to West's protectionism

NAZMUL AHSAN
Trade ministers from the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) at their upcoming Dhaka meeting will demand eradication of protectionist regimes imposed by industrialised nations on imports from the poorer nations.
They will also raise their voice for withdrawal of restrictions on temporary movement of natural persons, moratorium on imposi-tion of anti-dumping and countervailing duties for products originating from the LDCs by the developed countries.
The draft declaration of the meeting, scheduled for May 31 -June 1, also demands fair share in international trade and duty- and quota-free access of LDC products to developed countries with a relaxed rules of origin.
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia will
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open the meeting at China-Bangladesh Friendship Conference Centre.
The draft declaration has already been sent to the LDCs from the Bangladesh mission in Geneva.
Bangladesh, coordinator of the 49-member LDC grouping, is the initiator of the upcoming trade ministers' meeting ahead of the 5th World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting.
The WTO meeting is slated for September in Cancun in Mexico.
"The meeting of the trade ministers is expected to forge a common position of LDCs on the WTO issues and international trades," Commerce Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said to The Daily Star.
Representatives of 38 LDCs including 23 trade ministers have already confirmed their participation in the upcoming meeting and many others are likely to do so soon.
Secretary General of the United Nations on Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Rubens Ricupero, Trade Commissioner of the European Commission (EC) Pascal Lamy and Director General of the WTO Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi are expected to attend the meeting.
Both developed and developing countries often impose protection-
ist measures like labour standards, environmental requirements and workplace environment during imports from the LDCs.
The forthcoming WTO meeting is likely to make these measures mandatory for all of its 146 member states.
Since the LDCs are lagging behind in the implementation of the tough conditions, their exports could be hit hard once further stringent measures on the pretext of environment is imposed, apprehends the draft declaration.
On the issue of movement of natural persons, the draft demands withdrawal of restrictions on both semi-skilled and unskilled manpower.
"LDCs demand that developed countries must ensure mutual recognition of professionals. The restriction of entry by the natural person in the guise of economic need test (ENT) must be removed," the draft says.
"The social security charges must be withdrawn for the temporary natural persons as they do not receive social security support against those."
The draft also demands implementation of the special and deferential treatment on the products of the LDCs as pledged by different ministerial meetings of the WTO.
"The LDCs are concerned with the fact that the modalities for
special treatment of the LDCs in the negotiations are not yet finalised. The LDCs demand that the agreed modalities must consider the lesser commitments by the LDCs against the request made by the developed countries," the draft says.
To check further marginalisation of the LDCs, the draft demands increased technical and financial assistance in development, strengthening and diversification of production and export bases of LDCs to address their supply side constraint.
The UNCTAD, EC and Norway will fund the hosting of the trade ministers conference.