Joining plurilateral trade talks a must to sustain in global trade: Dr Mustafiz

A senior trade expert of the country suggested that Bangladesh should actively be engaged in plurilateral trade negotiation to avoid falling behind global trade regime.

“Bangladesh should take a keen interest in the plurilateral negotiations and, where feasible and necessary, take part in relevant discussions,” said Professor Mustafizur Rahman in an interview with Thinking Aloud, a monthly newsletter of South Asian Network on Economic Modelling (SANEM).

He was of the view that Bangladesh and other South Asian countries should approach the issue of whether to be involved in plurilateral negotiations with an open mind.

In the last ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation, held in December last in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, a large number of member countries expressed their intention to initiate plurialteral negotiations in three to four areas.

These are: trade-related electronic commerce, framework on investment facilitation, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and domestic regulations on services. Bangladesh didn’t join any of the initiatives on the issues.

Plurilateral trade negotiation is a kind a negotiation where a number of countries get together on a trade issue. It involved a good number of member countries of the WTO. The negotiated agreement is obligatory to those who join the deal from the beginning or later.

“The apprehension is that when plurilaterals are subsequently multilateralised, the excluded members are compelled to play the role of mere takers, without the balance of interests provided under the single undertaking principle of the WTO,” said Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

“Least Developed Countries, as a second best solution, given the way multilateralism is evolving in a very challenging and dynamic trading system, ought to follow the plurilateral discussions very closely,” he suggested.