Anticipating the First Approximations from Bangladesh Perspective'. The Daily Star publishes the full text in two instalments.

I. Background
With the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) due to be held during 13-18 December this year, there is still a lot of uncertainty as regards progress of current negotiations which could ultimately lead to the successful completion of the Doha Development Round (DDR) by the end of 2006. This cynicism can be attributed to a number of factors including the failure, on the part of the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), to come up with the so called First Approximations during the July 2005 meeting of the General Council (GC) in Geneva.

Many WTO Members, particularly those from the developing and least developed bloc [e.g. the African Group (AG) and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP)] are criticising the way the current negotiations are heading and are apprehensive that the development dimensions of the Doha Development Round is fast losing ground. Despite the many differences which emerged at the GC meeting, all members have expressed their willingness to continue negotiations during the run-up to the Hong Kong Ministerial. Many are hoping that election of Pascal Lamy, reputed to be a do-getter, may infuse some much needed life into the current negotiations. However, concern remains as to whether the Members, individually or in coalitions, can work together towards achieving a common negotiated outcome despite their widely divergent interests and goals in the context of the DDR.

It appears that five clusters of negotiating issues will have to be addressed during the run-up to the Hong Kong Ministerial. These are:
* Agriculture
* Non-agricultural Market Access (NAMA)
* Services (GATS)
* Rules and Trade Facilitation
* "Development" Provisions

As far as the LDCs are concerned, there is hardly any doubt that they came out with mixed feelings from the Cancun debacle; unfortunately the July Framework (2004) could not assure them that their concerns will be fully addressed. Non-committal promises shrouded in interpretative ambiguities could not restore their assurance. In 2005, a number events took place including the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting (Paris, France: 3-4 May 2005), APEC Trade Ministers' Meeting (Jeju, Korea: 2 - 3 June, 2005) and the Third African Trade Ministers' Meeting (Cairo, Egypt: 8-9 June, 2005) which have attempted to show members' commitment to multilateral liberalisation and give political signals to accelerate the pace of negotiations.

The Dalian Mini Ministerial Meeting (July 12-13, 2005) has attempted to push the negotiations forward by giving signals to negotiators in some key areas. On the other hand, the Livingstone Ministerial Level Meeting (June 25-27, 2005) has tried to underscore the concerns of the LDCs in the context of the ongoing negotiations and also the priorities to advance their group interests. Taking into cognisance the recent developments both in and outside the WTO, this note attempts to identify some of the major concerns of Bangladesh and other LDCs which will need to be kept in the perspective as we move towards the Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting.

II. The Livingstone LDC Ministerial Meeting
The Fourth LDC Trade Ministers' Meeting (also known as the Fourth WTO Mini Ministerial) held in Livingstone, Zambia during June 25-27, 2005 was a significant event in terms of voicing LDC concerns, interests and priorities in the context of the current WTO negotiations in the various negotiating committees, keeping in view the Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting. It may be noted here that a three member delegation from Bangladesh, led by Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, participated in the meeting which was attended by representatives from a total of 49 countries including least developed, developing and developed countries. Observers from Australia, Japan, China, India, Canada, US and Brazil also joined the meeting.

The Declaration adopted at this meeting came up with 39 issue-specific proposals to be agreed upon by the relevant WTO bodies and the Sixth Ministerial Conference. In the Livingstone Ministerial, the ministers expressed concerns on various issues including
- Failure to meet deadlines set out in the Doha Ministerial Declaration and the subsequent decisions
- Slow progress in several areas including finding a permanent solution through amendment of the TRIPS Agreement
- Lack of attention to address issues of interest to LDCs including the secular deterioration of the terms of trade of commodities traded by the LDCs
- Continuing onerous demands put by some WTO members from the acceding LDCs

The meeting took note of a number of initiatives taken at the international front including
- Technical assistance and capacity building support by development partners and international organisations (especially UNCTAD and WTO) which was extended to acceding LDCs at all stages of the accession process
- The recent decision at the G-8 Ministers of Finance to cancel debt of several LDCs to the World Bank, IMF and the African Development Bank

The LDC trade ministers highlighted the need to connect global aid and trade architecture with the task of achieving the MDGs and sought adequate and timely support from all development partners and IFIs to enable them to meet the MDGs and other programmes aimed at significantly reducing poverty. The meeting also urged the developed countries to provide the LDCs with enhanced financial and technical support to help them diversify exports.

During the Livingstone Meeting, member-countries decided to hold at least two more mini-ministerial meetings in South Korea and China. As it is known, one has already taken place in Dalian, China.

III. The Dalian Mini Ministerial Meeting
The most recent WTO Mini Ministerial was held in the Chinese city of Dalian during July 12-13, 2005. Representatives from 32 Contracting Parities of the WTO, including Bangladesh, attended this meeting. The meeting reaffirmed its commitment for a successful completion of the Doha Round negotiations by the end of 2006. The final version of the Co-chair's Summary on the Informal Ministerial Meeting put forward the Members' positions as regards five clusters of issues in the negotiating agenda.

Agriculture: The meeting recognised the need to seek a middle ground between the Swiss formula and the Uruguay Round (UR) approach to address the market access pillar. With respect to internal support, the immediate focus was stated to be the cuts and disciplines related to trade distorting support. As for export competition, the view was to highlight the need to add further building blocks to the parallel commitments already in place.

NAMA: The meeting came out with the view that there was a possibility to agree on a Swiss formula with a couple of coefficients to ensure deeper cuts for higher tariffs. Consensus was also expressed to build on a non-linear mark-up approach in the future works.

Services: The meeting agreed on the need for more intensive works in order to enhance the bilateral request and offer process and to explore other approaches within the parameters of the GATS, the Negotiating Guidelines and the July Package.

Rules and Trade Facilitation: The meeting decided to embark on text-based negotiations as soon as possible and latest from Hong Kong onwards.

Development Provisions: The meeting underscored that the development dimension should be substantively integrated in all areas of the negotiations and the special concerns of the newly acceded members should be effectively addressed. Furthermore, it was agreed that the concerns relating to preference erosion should be taken into consideration in the course of the agriculture and NAMA negotiations.

to be continued