Finance and commerce adviser Mirza Azizul Islam asked for reconstitution of the country’s expert groups so that they can deal with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) issue more professionally. The finance and commerce adviser also directed for forming more groups if necessary, in addition to the existing five, to deal with the emerging issues to protect the country’s interest in the WTO. The decision to recast expert groups was taken at a high-powered committee meeting on May 13 with Finance and Commerce Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam in the chair.

Meeting sources said, representatives of the chamber bodies stressed the need for special attention to the appointment of public trade experts and their transfer as it is hampering the consistency of negotiation. When asked, Mirza Azizul said the appointment of public trade experts and their transfers are carried out under the country’s service rule and there is little room for ignoring that. Among representatives of the Chamber Bodies ICC-Bangladesh President Mahbubur Rahman also attended the meeting and took part in the discussion. Senior officials from different ministries, trade body leaders and experts were present at the fourth meeting of the high-powered committee at the Commerce Ministry conference room.

The meeting discussed implementation status of WTO Trade Policy Review (TPR) on Bangladesh, Balance of Payment Restriction (BOPR), progress of duty-and quota-free (DFQF) market access for LDCs and negotiation on Trade in Services. The finance and planning adviser said Dhaka has taken initiatives to obtain duty-free and quota-free access to the US market and the Japan-sponsored US $ 10 billion Aid for Trade package. “Already three ministries have been asked to come up with recommendations as the country is willing to take the offer of Aid for Trade,” he said. Japan announced that it would spend $ 10 billion over the next three years on Aid for Trade-a programme of the trade-related assistance that aims to help nearly 50 developing countries enhance their trading capability. It announced the packages along with some other industrialised countries at the WTO meeting in Hong Kong. “A special envoy of the present caretaker government Farooq Sobhan already discussed the issue with the US official,” he said.

Apart from the initiative by the government, Azizul Islam said the organisations of the readymade garment (RMG) exporters have already decided to appoint lobbyist. The US market is extremely important for Bangladesh as US is the single largest market for Bangladeshi products. In the last fiscal, 28.8 per cent of the grand total and 33.3 per cent of total RMG exports were made to the US. The finance and planning adviser also appreciated the decision by the nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus to attend a Senate Hearing in Washington DC May 16 on the country’s request for DFQF market access.