By Xinhua
Dhaka : The caretaker government of Bangladesh has urged the Group of Eight (G-8) highly industrialised economies to grant access to their markets for all products from least developed nations.
Chief Adviser to the government Fakhruddin Ahmed made the request in a letter to G-8 leaders who are preparing to hold a summit of the grouping in Tokyo in July, UNB news agency reported Tuesday.
Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury disclosed this to the media Tuesday. He said the letter was intended to “sensitise the global economic leadership to the problems confronted by the least developed countries (LDCs)”.
Chowdhury said the letter pointed to the tariff and non-tariff barriers faced by products from the LDCs in developed markets and asked for firm commitments on special and differential treatment for those countries pending agreements on the Doha Round of talks.
He said the chief adviser, as Chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), asked for market-access benefits “for all products from all LDCs without discrimination”.
“The issue of environmental vulnerability of most LDCs due to global warming and climate change was also underscored,” Ahmed said, “as well as shocks from global economic downturn.”
He expressed hope that these issues would receive due attention of the leaders in the forthcoming G-8 summit comprising France, Germany, Italy, Britain, the US, Canada, Japan, plus Russia.