Kathmandu Wednesday February 04, 2004 Ashadh 31,  2058.

LDCs demand better deal from WTO

Post Report

KATHMANDU, July 14 - Representatives of the civil society organizations from SAARC and COMESA regions demanded a better deal from the multilateral trading system, especially for the most marginalized and vulnerable countries of the world.

The above was the views of the participants attending the South-Asia seminar "From Brussels to Doha: Integrating Least Developed Countries into the Multilateral Trading System," which kicked off here today.

South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE) in cooperation with Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS), Jaipur is organizing the seminar.

The meeting is being organized at a time when the Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (UNLDC III) has just ended and all eyes are set on the Third Ministerial Meeting of the WTO to be held in Doha in November this year.

As per the organizers, the major objective of the seminar is to translate whatever little has been achieved during the UNLDC III into reality by feeding them into the Doha process.

They also said that the recommendations of the seminar will be fed into the Meeting of the LDC Trade Ministers to be held in Janjibar, Tanzania from 22 to 25 July 2001. The Janjibar Meeting is being organized to develop a common position among the LDCs for the Doha Ministerial Conference.

Speaking as the Chief Guest of the seminar, Dr. Shankar Sharma, Member of National Planning Commission mentioned that LDCs have not been given fair treatment by the developed countries in the WTO system and if this trend continues they will be further marginalized.

Delivering his keynote address Nihal Rodrigo, Secretary General of the SAARC expressed hope that the seminar would address the full complexity of issues, which inhibit the equitable participation of the LDCs in multilateral trade negotiations and their full integration eventually in the global trading system.

Pradeep S. Mehta, Secretary General of CUTS, who was chairing the inaugural session underscored the need for having proactive position in the Doha Ministerial Meeting. He further pointed out the need for the developing countries and LDCs to maintain their cohesiveness as exhibited during the Seattle Ministerial Conference of the WTO.

Similarly, Ratnakar Adhikari, General Secretary of SAWTEE, said, "WTO membership is a prerequisite for LDCs to better integrate themselves into the multilateral trading system". "However, the way developed countries have forced LDCs to accept WTO-plus proves that they are not genuinely interested to make this happen," he added.

Thirty representatives from civil society organisations of Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Malaysia, Uganda and Zambia are participating at the seminar, in addition to the officials from SAARC Secretariat and Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies.