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INT'L CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM ENDS

Call for free access of LDC products

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The International Civil Society Forum yesterday adopted Dhaka Declaration 2005, reiterating the demands of the least developed countries (LDCs) for providing duty and quota-free access of their products to the developed countries.
"Zero-tariff access for all goods originating in the least developed countries remains as elusive as ever. We reiterate the LDC demand for dutyfree access of all their products in the developed countries, secured and bound in the WTO [World Trade Organisation]," the declaration said.
The forum urged the governments of the LDCs not to compromise the interest of their citizens in the face of pressure from the big trading blocs, international financial institutions and vested groups.
It welcomed recent initiatives by
some developing countries to extend zero-tariff market access to the LDCs and urged other developing countries to do the same.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) organised the three-day "International Civil Society Forum 2005 for Advancing LDC Interests in the Sixth WTO Ministerial" ending yesterday at Sheraton Hotel in the capital.
The forum strongly emphasised the urgent need "to operationalise the objectives of coherence" between the WTO and international lending institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, in line with the rights and flexibilities that LDCs have obtained under the WTO.
CPD and its co-organisers will send joint letters to all trade ministers concerned so that they take the recommendations of their citizens into account.
"We strongly criticise the lack of inclusiveness of the LDCs in the governance and policymaking process of the WTO," the declaration added.
The forum expressed its deep concern over the lack of progress in fulfilling the commitments of the developed countries to provide special and differential treatment to the developing countries and the LDCs.
Reaz Rahman, adviser of the foreign ministry, Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi, commerce secretary, Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, executive director of CPD, Khushi Kabir, cochair of National Advisory Committee (NAC) and coordinator of Nijera Kori, and representatives of other coorganisers also spoke in the concluding session.
Mahbubur Rahman, president of International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh, and chairperson of NAC of the LDC Forum 2005 chaired the session.