Special SAARC meeting

One may recall that in June last, the LDC trade ministers' meeting adopted the 16-point Dhaka Declaration (DD). It basically enumerated a charter of demand for the developed world to fulfil in the supreme interest of an inter-dependent global economic and trade order. The DD called for reversal of the continued marginalisation of LDCs in global trade. For this, the industrial world needed to allow 'duty and quota-free market access to all LDC products, temporary movement of natural persons, flexible and simplified rules of origin and special and differential treatment.'

Why the quest for a common stance within SAARC when there is a broader consensus available among the LDCs in the shape of 16-point Dhaka Declaration? The answer to this inevitable question is: SAARC is a grouping of countries with divergent economic standings. For instance, India is an advanced developing country. Under an EU proposal she has been called upon, among other such countries, to accord duty- and quota-free access to services and products from the LDCs. That's why it will be worthwhile for the Dhaka meet to try and drum up support from all the SAARC countries for the 16-point Dhaka Declaration of the LDCs. The idea is to stem any tendency in a developing country to go its separate way when the chips are down in the harder phase of the WTO negotiations. The dependence on aid and history of bilateral equations have often run counter collective positioning or bargaining vis-a-vis the developed world.

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We have three final points to make: first, the developed world should abide by the Earth Summit resolutions on environment-friendliness; secondly, they better help the LDCs build up their export capacities; and thirdly, the subsidisation double standard must go.