Dear friends,

Greetings from BGW-info.net & Make Trade Fair Alliance!

We call on you for your solidarity supports regarding our concerns and position towards the upcoming Meeting of the Ministers of Trade of the Less Developing Countries. The meeting is scheduled to be held 27-29th February at Maseru, Lesotho.

It is expected that on February 28th 2008, the LDC Trade Ministers will adopt a declaration based on updating and review of the Livingstone Declaration of the Trade Ministers of LDCs, June 2005.

In this regard, we would like to draw your attention to some of the contents of the Livingstone Declaration which we think will be vital to carry forward the discussion in the upcoming Meet at Lesotho.

Firstly, with respect to the first call of the Livingstone declaration, it should be noted that the Hong Kong meet of WTO so far have only confirmed duty and quota free market access for 97 percent of LDC products. The LDC minister at the upcoming Lesotho meet should be univocal in terms of immediate realization of this commitment in a manner which provides each of the LDCs the highest trade benefit. At the same time the Ministers should reiterate their call for complete withdrawal of quota and duty from LDC exports.

Secondly, regarding the 23rd call of the Livingstone declaration, we urge the LDC Ministers not only to stand firmly by the call of Livingstone Declaration but also to stand united to call upon WTO to expand the existing flexibilities for LDCs for implementation of obligation of TRIPS. This is crucial for countries such as Bangladesh and LDCs in general which are seeking to promote industrialization.

Thirdly, with respect to the 27th call of the Livingstone declaration, we find that the immediate implementation of Mode-4 is the only positive component of Trade in services as far the LDCs are concerns.  At the same time, we find service sector trade highly sensitive to public utilities such as education, health, water, sanitation and communication etc. In this regard, we find that the LDC Ministers should on one hand, call for having service sector liberalization regarding Mode-4. While on the other hand, resist any pressure to liberalize services which are essential for public wellbeing and realization of rights of the citizens.

Fourthly, we observe that previously the Livingstone Declaration has not clearly expressed the concerns of the LDCs regarding Agriculture from the perspective of farmers’ rights to livelihood. We call upon the LDC Ministers to firmly claim “de-linking LDC agriculture from the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture”. In other words, the LDCs should retain full sovereignty in terms of source, production, process and products of agriculture in order to safeguard livelihood, food security and environment. This issue should be highlighted while updating and reviewing the Livingstone declaration in the upcoming Lesotho meet.

Lastly, we express our full support and solidarity with the LDC process and the concerns registered in the Livingstone Declaration. We would specially like to reaffirm our commitment to the call for debt cancellation, capacity facilitation, protection to the net-food importing countries, protection from preference-erosion and the full implementation of special and differential treatment facilities with appropriate specifications.

Dear Friends,

We hope that you would sign the petition and engage your organization and network to facilitate unity among the LDC delegations.

Best wishes,
BGW-info.net & Make Trade Fair Alliance