Industry experts seek Nepal to support Least Developed Countries (LDCs) during the ministerial meet of WTO; the meet is to be organized during 13-19 December at Hong Kong.
This is the first time Nepal is taking part in the ministerial meet of the WTO since its entry in 2003.
Nepal would address common position aligned with LCDs, said officials of the Ministry for Industry, Commerce and Supply.
Apart from the scope of aid for trade, food, and development cited in the Doha Declaration, LDCs would raise a strong demand for removal of agriculture and export subsidies by developed nations.
Nepal still has to discover how it would gain from multi-lateral discussions, informed Bharat Bahadur Thapa, Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies.
Delegates from Nepal had communicated to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply about the issues to be raised in ministerial meet for boosting exports of Nepalese products, said General Secretary of Garment Association of Nepal (GNA), Uday Raj Pandey.
They include duty free access of goods from LDC countries on renewed terms, excluding garment and textile industry from Non Agriculture Market Access (NAMA) agreement and establishement of independent committee for garment and textile industry have been raised by the delegates for the government to raise during the meet, added Pandey.
Ministerial meeting is likely to confirm the NonAgriculture Market Access (NAMA) agreement, which will cut down tariff rates and create preferential market erosion.
This would help Nepal in raising its concerns to eliminate garment and textile industry from the NAMA agreement and also force to make a committee to deal with the issues of this industry, Pandey informed.
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