The developed countries continued to provide subsidy for their agriculture sector, which could be another subtle ground to push the issue at the next ministerial conference beginning on December 13 in Hong Kong, they observed.

They also criticised the government's lack of seriousness in pursuing Bangladesh's interests in the WTO and proposed to form a 'People's Commission' with the representatives from different parts of the society.

Unnayan Onneshan, a centre for research and action on development, organised the consultation titled "Riding on the Road: Options for Bangladesh in the Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference" at the CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka with Khushi Kabir, Coordinator of Nijera Kori, an NGO, in the chair.

Speaking at the meeting, eminent economist Prof Mozaffar Ahmed said the rich countries have forced the poor nations to abide by their policies in the name of globalisation and stressed the need for democratising the WTO to give poorer countries a strong voice.

He expressed concern over the gradual emergence of the genetically modified foods, which would further marginalise the poor farmers giving away the benefits to the multinational companies.

Local negotiators decide their strategy on inputs from donors as well as the businesses linked with the commerce ministry, he said criticising the weak negotiating capacity of Bangladesh.

Prof Muzaffar was also critical about lack of initiative to develop domestic capacity for taking advantage of the trade preferences being offered by the WTO and other trade agreements.

Hasanul Huq Inu of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) said the poor nations like Bangladesh need fair trade not free trade. Since the present government is serving the interest of their own instead of the people, it does not bother about reading peoples' mind, he added.

"The government approved a poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) without consulting it in the parliament and we the opposition parties are in the dark about it," he said.

President of Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad said that the present WTO policies would not bring about any positive changes for the poor countries. The prescriptions of the millennium development goals (MDGs) would fail to reduce poverty as it has no direction to enhance investment in the poor countries.

Economist Professor MM Akash said the rich nations are pursuing their own goals through WTO and their main motive is profit, not the wellbeing of the poor.

He said although the rich nations are forcing the poor countries to open their markets, they (rich countries) themselves protect their markets through high tariff and non-tariff barriers.

Economist Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir of Dhaka University and team leader of Unnayan Onneshan presented the keynote paper at the meeting on 'WTO and Bangladesh'.

In his presentation, Titumir said the WTO-prescribed system is not a natural force and its rules and regulations are the reflection of political choice.

Referring to a recent statistics, he said that if Africa, East Asia and Latin America could increase their share of exports by just one percent, around 128 million people could be lifted out of poverty.

He said the developing countries that have 98 percent of the total farming population, capture only one third of the world agriculture trade amounting to $ 783 billion.

Among others, FBCCI President Mir Nasir Hossain, former commerce secretary Golam Rahman and former commerce secretary Alamgir Faruk Chowdhury took part in the consultation.