12 September 2003, 14:00-18:00, Picasso Room

There is a growing concern among the least developed countries (LDCs) that the spirit of the Doha Ministerial Meeting has largely been lost during the negotiations process. The first draft of the Cancun Ministerial Declaration vindicates the apprehension of the LDCs as trade and development issues related to their concerns have been grossly ignored. As a result, the World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference in Cancun is an important occasion to test the seriousness of the WTO’s developed countries Members’ commitments to the LDCs as well as their intention in shaping a balanced and fair multilateral trading regime.

In order to consolidate the position of the LDCs during the Cancun Ministerial negotiations, the Commerce Ministers of LDCs met in Dhaka in May 2003 and adopted a declaration from the LDC perspective. In order to highlight the concerns of civil society and stakeholders groups, and to express solidarity with the LDC ministers on behalf of their citizens to take a bold stand in protecting the interest of the LDCs, a Global Civil Society Forum was convened in Dhaka under the auspices of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) before the LDC Ministers’ meeting. The Global Civil Society Forum has adopted a declaration that underscores the priorities for the LDCs and their demands. The declaration brought attention to the fact that issues of great concerns to the LDCs – such as duty-free and quota free market access; special and differential treatment for the developing countries, which have been promised since the conclusion of the Uruguay round; special modalities for the LDCs in GATS negotiations on movement of natural persons; access to cheap medicines by the poor countries; issues related to standards and other non-tariff barriers; and meaningful technical assistance and capacity building of the LDCs for “meaningful participation” of the LDCs in the multilateral trading system – have been marginalised in negotiations following the Doha Ministerial. The Cancun Ministerial is therefore an important forum for the LDCs to voice their concerns and to ensure that the Doha Round of negotiations is truly a “development” round.

The demands of the LDCs, drawn from the Dhaka Declaration of both the LDC Ministers and Global Civil Society Forum are as follows:

• Duty-free and quota-free market access for all LDC products and exemption from all safeguard measures;
• Resolution of all implementation issues prior to consideration of new issues;
• A framework agreement on S&DT premised on level of development, and incorporating mandatory obligations on the part of developed countries;
• Flexibility for the LDCs on agriculture to enable LDCs to protect domestic agriculture, safeguard food security and the livelihood of the farmers;
• Technical and financial assistance for LDCs;
• Access to essential medicines;
• Protection of the rights of farmers, indigenous people and local communities;
• Free movement of people;
• Accession of LDCs to the WTO under conditions no less favourable than those that apply to existing LDC members;
• Transparent and fully inclusive decision making at Cancun and beyond;
• Non-reciprocity and exemption for LDCs in negotiations on industrial tariffs.

In order to ensure that these LDC concerns will be voiced and debated in Cancun, the Centre for Policy Dialogue, a leading civil society think tank in South Asia is organising this session with a view to:

• Highlight the trade interests and concerns of the LDCs in the context of the evolving WTO regime;
• Mobilise broad-based support in favour of the LDCs during the Cancun negotiations and to consolidate LDC solidarity around common issues of concerns;
• Raise awareness of the legitimacy of the LDC concerns to all stakeholders; and
• Sketch and map a future plan of action after the Cancun Ministerial.

Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury is the Minister of Commerce of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh and Vice-Chairman of the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun.

Suhel Ahmed Choudhury is Commerce Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Peoples Republic of Bangladesh.
Mustafizur Rahman is the Research Director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue and Professor, Department of Accounting and Information Systems, University of Dhaka. He is a Member of Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) and a member of the Working Group on WTO, Ministry of Commerce, Government of Bangladesh

Ann Weston is Vice-President and Coordinator of Research of the North-South Institute. Her current research focuses on the World Trade Organisation and its implications for Canada and developing countries. Weston worked as Senior Economics Officer in the Economic Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat, and as Research Officer at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London.

Ananya Raihan is Research Fellow of Centre for Policy Dialogue, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is a member of Working Group of Ministry of Commrce on GATS Issues.
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Sachin Chaturvedi is a Fellow at the Research and Information Systems for Non-Aligned Countries and other Developing Countries. He has been working on Intellectual Property Regime; Trade and Environment related issues in WTO. His areas of specialisation include economics of biotechnology and biodiversity.

D. van Blarcom is a trade specialist at the Asian Development Bank.

Ratnakar Adhikari is Executive Director of South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment (SAWTEE) in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Debapriya Bhattacharya is the Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dhaka - a civil society think-tank. He is currently on leave from the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) where he is a Senior Research Fellow. He was also a Visiting Fellow at United Nations University-Institute of New Technology (UNU-INTECH), Maastricht and Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He has conducted joint research with the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE), Tokyo and Institute of Development Planning and Management (IDPM), Manchester.

For more information please contact tds@ictsd.ch.