Mustafizur Rahman, an economist and a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), recently urged the Bangladesh government to negotiate extension of duty privileges to some extent following the nation’s graduation to a developing country in 2026 at the upcoming 12th World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference (MC 12).

The MC 12 will be held in Geneva between November 30 and December 3.

Even if the privileges are for six or nine years following the graduation from a least developed country (LDC), it is still good for Bangladesh, he said.

He was addressing a virtual discussion on ‘Upcoming MC12: Bangladesh's Expectations and Possible Stance’ jointly organised by the CPD and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's (FES) Bangladesh office.

Rahman, however, also said Bangladesh needs to learn to compete in an open market regime without depending on market access facilities as duty facilities would not be available forever.

In a virtual keynote presentation, he said the country needs to think beyond the LDC graduation and duty facilities for other ways of continuing policy support and subsidies in fisheries, such as holding negotiations with major trading partners.

Rahman said China has been continuing to provide duty facilities to Samoa even after the latter's graduation while India has been doing the same for Maldives.

Issues like formation of a graduation support fund and how to support the small farmers should also be focused in the negotiation, added Rahman.

Bringing together the three important issues of trade, investment and transport under regional connectivity can play a very vital role in flourishing trade, he said.

Bangladesh should also look for joining regional free trade agreements (FTA) such as Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) so that business grows after the graduation, Rahman added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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