Strengthening of MoC's Consultative Process on WTO
There is a mechanism of consultative process in place in the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) for seeking advice from the stakeholders on WTO related issues. An apex Advisory Committee and five Working Groups on WTO have been set up under the initiative of the MoC. This consultative process needs to be further strengthened to ensure more effective contribution to safeguarding Bangladesh's interests in the WTO. The consultations should be held more regularly, presence of major stakeholders should be ensured and the preparations for the meetings should be made in a manner that encourages concrete proposals to emerge from these meetings.

Further Strengthening of the WTO Cell
The setting up of the WTO-cell within the Ministry of Commerce was a decision in the right direction. This has evidently strengthened the Ministry's capacity to deal with WTO related issues. The WTO-cell will need to be further strengthened with human and logistics support to enable the cell to work more effectively. Adequate attention should be given to skill upgradation, training and appropriate incentive package to attract and retain cadres. This is also essential to support the Geneva process with substantive inputs.

Strengthening of the Geneva Mission
Bangladesh's Mission in Geneva has been doing a commendable job under very difficult conditions. However, in view of the tasks ahead and the demands of negotiations under the Doha Work agenda, the Mission needs to be further strengthened and there is a need to allocate more resources to the Mission. This would allow Bangladesh to participate more effectively in the various important meetings being held in Geneva in the context of the ongoing negotiations. Besides, Bangladesh is also looked upon by the other LDCs to fight for the interests of the LDCs as a group. Strengthening of the Geneva Mission is important from this perspective as well.

Dedicated Commerce Secretary to deal with WTO Issues
In order to deal with and address WTO related issues in a more informed manner and on an ongoing basis many developing countries have restructured their administrative and bureaucratic set up. In many countries there is a dedicated Commerce Secretary supported by Joint Secretaries and other officers down the line to provide the necessary support. At present the Commerce Secretary of Bangladesh has to deal with both domestic and international trade related issues which puts a lot of pressure on his time. The demands originating from the WTO work plan in the coming days call for an appropriate restructuring of responsibilities within the Commerce Ministry to enable it deal adequately with the tasks at hand.

BFTI and Trade Related Capacity Building in Bangladesh
The decision to establish the Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI) as part of developing national capacities in trade related research, training and education was a commendable initiative. The BFTI was to be established on private-public partnership basis and was envisaged to provide support both to the GoB and the private sectors in trade related matters including negotiations. Regrettably, the BFTI has been facing a lot of problems and is yet to live up to its initial promise. In view of the emerging needs, the GoB and the Ministry of Commerce should take all necessary initiatives to make BFTI up and running on an urgent basis.

Private Sector Representative in Geneva
It goes without saying that Bangladesh's private sector has interests in the ongoing negotiations in Geneva and their possible outcomes. The decisions made through the WTO negotiations are going to have important implications for Bangladesh's external sector performance and interests of the business. As such, there is a need for the private sector to be better informed about the negotiations in Geneva and to strategise accordingly. The private sector should seriously consider the idea of having a representative in Geneva who could monitor the negotiations and study the possible implications for business, and provide feedbacks to the trade bodies and Chambers the Ministry of Commerce and the Geneva Mission. A number of countries have such representatives in Geneva whose work complement the work of their respective national Missions.

Setting up a National Committee to Review the Hong Kong Declaration
The Ministerial Declaration coming out of Hong Kong needs careful scrutiny by all stakeholders in Bangladesh. This is required for three reasons. Firstly, the declaration provides important guidelines for future negotiations in a number of key areas of interests to Bangladesh including NAMA, Agriculture and Services. Bangladesh will need to articulate its negotiating strategies in view of these guidelines. Bangladesh will also need to identify products which it would like to ensure for inclusion in the 97 per cent list of market access in a manner that best suits her export interests. Secondly, the Ministerial Declaration provides for a number of opportunities to Bangladesh.

These include such areas as market access (DF-QF market access for all products in many developed countries and up to 97 per cent of tariff lines in some countries), waivers in TRIMS, extension in TRIPS and LDC modalities in GATS. In view of this Bangladesh will need to design appropriate strategies to take advantage of the emerging opportunities. Thirdly, Bangladesh will need to get on with task of designing a medium to long-term strategy to make the aid for trade package work for the purpose of trade-related capacity building in Bangladesh. Bangladesh will need to make best use of the available windows of opportunity and try to make the most out of the flexibilities provided under the various S&D provisions, particularly in terms of TRIPS and TRIMS.

Thus an indepth analysis of attendant opportunities and risks will need to be carried out by the government, through wide and indepth consultations with the trade bodies, experts, and other stakeholder groups. In implementing these tasks the Ministry of Commerce will have to device means and methods to effectively draw on other trade analysis capacities available in the country.

(concluded)

The authors are the researchers of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh.