National Seminar on 'Shaping the future of trade: Agenda for Bangladesh at the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference' held at NSU 

Photo: Courtesy

'Bangladesh is moving forward to become a developed country by 2041. To accelerate the trajectory of development, trade and commerce play a pivotal role.

In the upcoming 13th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC) at Abu Dhabi we will try to negotiate to get the best outcomes for our country as we are graduating from LDC in 2026', said Mr. Ahasanul Islam (Titu), MP, the Honourable State Minister, Ministry of Commerce, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.       

He spoke as the chief guest at the national seminar jointly organized by the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) and the School of Business Economics (SBE) at North South University (NSU) on February 17, 2024. The title of the seminar was 'Shaping the future of trade: Agenda for Bangladesh at the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference'. The seminar aimed to identify and discuss the potential benefits of Bangladesh in international trade and strategies to mitigate the challenges ahead in the context of the 13th Ministerial Conference. Mr. Javed Muneer Ahmad, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of North South University chaired the session. The event was moderated by Professor Sk. Tawfique M. Haque, Dean of SHSS, and NSU & Director of SIPG.

Mr. Ahasanul Islam (Titu), MP also said, that our economic achievements are significant in terms of International trade and infrastructure development. Now our focus is on creating more employment opportunities as one of our main strengths is human resources and creating employment was a priority in our election manifesto. He also spoke about diversifying the export products and materializing the 'One Village, One Product', a project to foster the economic growth of Bangladesh. He also hopes that Bangladesh will sign various trade agreements like PTA with ASEAN countries and CEPA with India and Japan soon.    

The keynote presentation was given by Professor Helal Ahammad, Dean, School of Business & Economics and Director, Economics Research Platform. He said, while WTO must remain the 'main' game, Bangladesh must double down its efforts on bilateral agreements. 'Bangladesh must build in-house capability for forging tough trade-negotiations, build data & analytical capabilities and magnify institutional collaborations,' he added. 

Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow of CPD said, that WTO countries don't get what they deserve, but rather what they negotiate. So it is essential for Bangladesh to get in the green room discussions that is where most of the negotiations will be done. Bangladesh needs to engage in issue-specific coalition with the LDC group and also be with G-90 group discussions. Moreover, we must also focus on the UN LDC5 declaration on the graduating LDCs.       

Dr. Mustafa Abid Khan, Former Member, of Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission said, WTO is very important for us as they created the rules based market policy and dispute settlement mechanism. Through WTO we got duty free access of our various products, and it was beneficial for us.  Now it's time for Bangladesh to formulate evidence based trade policy and then bilaterally negotiate with partner countries on trade issues. He added, fisheries is an important sector for us as we don't have a strong capacity for deep sea fishing. So we have to be very careful about negotiating on the fisheries subsidy matters.

Professor Shahidul Haque of SIPG, NSU discussed reforming the WTO. He said that countries should continue to demand structural reform of WTO for ensuring transparency and reaffirming fundamental principles of WTO on which it was formed. 'There should be a clear separation of politics and human rights from the trade issues. Moreover, whether we have statistics or not we should move forward for the fisheries subsidy to remain through strong negotiations', he added.

Dr. Md. Jafar Uddin, CEO of Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute said that we should focus on export led growth strategy and strengthen our trade diplomacy capacity to foster our economic development.

As the session chair, Mr. Javed Muneer stated that, 'the trade dialogues today have become more complex. Remittance and labor movements are now important aspects. Richer nations are again reshoring their industries and it is changing the global architecture of trade. In this context Bangladesh needs good negotiators and skilled lawyers for combating the hurdles of future trade and dispute resolution.' Mr. Ahmad concluded the seminar by saying that NSU is committed to contribute to the evidence based policy making with strong collaboration with the government and making leaders for the future Bangladesh.      

Engaging questions from the audience livened up the discussion. Participants from national and international organizations, universities, development organizations, embassies, media outlets, and other organizations attended physically and virtually. Noted NSU, SBE, and SIPG faculty members were also in attendance and provided insightful questions and commentary during the open session.