LDCs gain at Bali meet

The ninth ministerial conference of the WTO is about to adopt a joint declaration, ending days of uncertainty and speculation about the meet's impending failure.

The conference is fine tuning the draft declaration that is likely bring cheer to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) by allowing their products quota- and duty free access to developed markets.

The four-day conference, which began at the beach resort of Bali, Indonesia, on Tuesday, was to wind up on Friday, but deliberations were still on well past midnight, Indonesian time.

European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht emerged out of the conference a little past midnight to tell waiting journalists, "It's a great deal."

Moments later, Bangladeshi Trade Secretary Mehbub Alam told Bangladeshi mediapersons, "We have got everything we wanted. They will be included in the Bali package."

The draft declaration was, in the mean time, made public while commerce ministers and representatives of the attending countries gave it the finishing touches.

The draft says that developed countries that are yet to give 97 percent duty-free access to LDC products must attain that level before the next minister-level meet to offer LDCs a bigger market.

The developing countries, too, announced their readiness to allow LDCs duty-free market access.

The draft declaration says that the developing countries will, in course of time, also increase their share of allowing duty-free access to products from LDCs.

The developing countries that are yet to grant that facility will soon initiate the process, the draft says.

However, the draft declaration falls short of fixing a timeframe for the developed and developing countries to meet their commitments. It merely says this has to be done before the next ministerial-level meet, usually held every two years.

But how far the developed and developing nations will fulfil their pledges will remain in doubt if the final declaration, skips a specific guarantee clause.