Where — Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute Conference Hall. TCB Bhaban (5th Floor), 1 Karwan bazar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

When — 26-28 February, 2013

Overview — Amitav Chakrabarty, DG, WTO Cell, Ministry of Commerce, inaugurated the programme. Dale Honek, Counsellor, Trade in Services Division, WTO and Lizzie Medrano delivered their speeches later. Dr. Md. Mozibur Rahman, CEO, BFTI chaired the event.

Participants —Trade policy practitioners in the government. Participating organizations:

  • Ministry of Commerce
  • Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute
  • Ministry of Post and Telecommunication
  • Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
  • Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation
  • Ministry of Finance
  • Office of the CCI&E
  • Bangladesh Bank
  • Ministry of Labour & Manpower
  • FBCCI
  • Ministry of Industry
  • MCCI
  • BAIRA
  • Board of Investment
  • Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training
  • Ministry of Shipping
  • Ministry of Education
  • BTRC
  • Ministry of Expatriate Welfare & Overseas Employment
  • Ministry of Information and Communication Technology
  • Bangladesh Tariff Commission
  • Directorate of Nursing Services

Scope — It was a comprehensive training course on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The training was designed to strengthen the capacity of government officials in relevant ministries/divisions, regulatory bodies and those in the private sector engaged in the services trade. The training course started with an overview of GATS and analyzed the pros and cons of the GATS issues, including prospects and challenges for Bangladesh. Schedule of commitment and LDCs services waiver got added emphasis. Topics discussed in this training course were:

  • Overview of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)
  • LDCs’ trade in services and an overview of Bangladesh’s schedule of commitments
  • Aid for Trade, the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) and services trade
  • Schedules of Specific Commitments, “the art of scheduling”
  • GATS and Mode 4, Focusing on Movement of Natural Persons
  • Analysis of service schedules of some developed countries and revised offers under Doha Round towards identifying market access opportunities for LDCs
  • Discussions by national experts
  • Increased market access for LDC’s: Services Waiver
  • Interactive dialogue for the implementation of the waiver
  • Regionalism in services trade

Resource Persons

Dale Honek and Lizzie Medrano