Staff Reporter :
Equity and Justice Working Group (EquityBD), a national platform of CSO and NGOs in Bangladesh, organised a seminar in Dhaka on Sunday to discuss the possible position of the Bangladesh Government delegation on the eve of the Thirteenth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization. The seminar is co-organized by Coast Foundation, and Our World is Not for Sale, an international network working against the unjust global trading system.
Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad chaired the seminar, while Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, EquityBD’s Chief Moderator, moderated it.
Dr Mohammad Tanveer Hossain Chowdhury, the Deputy Chief (Marine) of the Department of Fisheries, spoke as the panel speaker along with the other speakers, including CSRL’s Ziaul Haque Mukta, COAST Foundation’s Deputy Executive Director Sanat Kumar Bhowmik and Internet Governance Forum’s General Secretary Abdul Haque Anu.
Barkat Ullah Maruf of COAST Foundation presented the keynote at the seminar. The recommendations for the Bangladesh Delegation to the WTO MC13 mentioned in the keynote presentation include demand for the implementation of the benefits promised at the MC12 to sustain the transition of the graduation of the LDC, demand the developed countries stop subsidies on the big industrial fishing which is the responsible for overfishing and depletion of global fish stocks, and Increasing opportunities and subsidies for small-scale farmers in LDCs, removing barriers for the LDC and developing countries to generate revenue from the e-commerce transactions of big tech companies, Support the demand for public stockholding and food security in the agricultural sector, extending the TRIPS Waiver in medicines for the LDC and newly graduated developing countries to ensure poor people’s access to medicines.
