Bangladesh urges WTO not to put restriction on food exports

Bangladesh demanded no restriction on food grains export by any nation and continuation of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) waiver benefit up to 31 December 2032.

The global leaders on the second day at the 12th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference at Geneva in Switzerland argued that the current food crisis could be a cause of serious nutrition deficiency for the people, especially the newborn babies.

Commerce Minister of Bangladesh Tipu Munshi after attending the two sessions of the conference told reporters that the demand was made as poor people couldn’t afford imported food items because of market ban.

Some food producing nations are stockpiling and imposing export ban amid Russia Ukraine war impacting the supply chain globally resulting in skyrocketing prices.

For example, India stopped exporting onion and Indonesia palm oil for the time being.

In Bangladesh two million babies are born and 30,000 Rohingya babies added to the population. So, it will be tough to maintain nutrition standard if food export is banned suddenly, he said.

The minister also demanded that the global leaders extend the TRIPs waiver to Bangladesh at least up to December 2032 so that the country could take preparation for production of generic medicine.

The WTO has given the TRIPs waiver to the LDCs up to December 2032 while Bangladesh will be excluded from the beneficiary list after the country’s final graduation to a developing nation on 24 November 2026. Munshi also demanded TRIPs waiver at least for three years after the graduation.

Meanwhile, the minister held meetings with both Singapore and Nepal on the sidelines of the conference and urged Singapore to sign Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Bangladesh.

About the meeting outcome, he said Nepal demanded duty benefit on export of some goods to Bangladesh and activation of the motor vehicle agreement for smooth movement of people of the SAARC nations.

Meanwhile, Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said the US was arguing for trade benefit for some specific countries being graduated from LDC to developing countries.

However, the extension of the trade benefits for some specific countries might not be beneficial for the graduating countries like Bangladesh.

Here further negotiation is necessary to reach a conclusion by the LDCs including the the countries being graduated from LDCs to developing ones.

Rather, a working group needs to be formed by the LDCs for negotiation so that three years or five or six years or nine years can be extended, he said.

However, Bangladesh should also negotiate the trade benefit as a developing country because of graduating factors.

The TRIPs is very important this year because of the economic fallout following the Covid-19 and vaccine item productions, he added.

Md Jshim Uddin, President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), said the private sector of Bangladesh wants TRIPs waiver extension for medicine industry growth.

Tapan Kanti Ghosh, Senior Secretary and Hafizur Rahman, Director General of the WTO Cell of the Commerce Ministry, were also present at the event.