RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/BOP/R/57
23 January 2001
(01-0348)
Committee on Balance-of-Payments Restrictions
REPORT ON THE CONSULTATIONS WITH BANGLADESH
1. The Committee resumed consultations with Bangladesh, suspended on 5 May 2000, on
15 December 2000, under the Chairmanship of Mr. Milan Hovorka (Czech republic).  The Chairman
recalled that the purpose of the continued consultations was to consider a plan by Bangladesh tophase-out the measures notified under Article XVIII:B.
2.  The Committee had before it the following documents:
WT/BOP/R/50 Report on the Consultations with Bangladesh (6 June 2000)
WT/BOP/N/54 Communication from Bangladesh (15 December 2000)
A. O
PENING STATEMENT
3. The opening statement by the representative of Bangladesh is attached as Annex 1.
B. DISCUSSION IN THE COMMITTEE
4. Members welcomed the submission of a phase-out plan by Bangladesh in accordance with
Paragraph 1 of the Understanding.  They sought clarification on the details of the items covered by the
plan: e.g., whether the items excluded from the phase-out plan were already freely importable and
how the transition from import prohibition to libera lization would proceed, i.e. whether items freed on
the specified date would be subject only to tariff protection.
5. Members noted Bangladesh's willingness to seek justification for some of its banned or
restricted items under Article XVIII:C.  Many questioned the procedures for claiming this
justification, including the additional information that would be required and to what extent theCommittee could discuss justification of import pr otection under Article XVIII:C.  Some Members
proposed that Bangladesh should maintain its Article XVIII:B cover until the procedures for a
measure that was already in place and the validity of claiming Article XVIII:C had been explored
through consultation and technical assistance.
6. Following a suspension of the meeting at which various aspects of the phase-out plan were
discussed, it was understood that a corrigendum to  WT/BOP/N/54 would be issued so as to make
clear that Bangladesh would seek other justification for banned or restricted items contained in
Annex II.
C. R
EPLY FROM THE REPRESENTATIVE OF BANGLADESH
7. The representative said that he was willing to explain the grounds on which his Government
felt justified to seek recourse to Article XVIII:C.  Although it was not clear that this was the forum for
providing information he agreed to give some preliminary explanation.  He cited the examples of salt,
sugar, eggs and packaging products which were locally produced and provided income andWT/BOP/R/57
Page 2
employment to the rural population restricting imports offered protection to local producers until such
time as the domestic market could be opened to foreign competition.
D. CONCLUSIONS
8. In conclusion, Members commended the efforts made by Bangladesh in submitting the phase-
out plan which they considered a step forward.  The representative of Bangladesh confirmed that thelists of products included in Annexes II and III of WT/BOP/N/54 covered the tota lity of products in
respect of which Bangladesh currently maintains balance-of-payments measures.  The Committee
approved the phase out plan presented by Bangladesh in Annex III of WT/BOP/N/54 and
Corrigendum 1 in the period starting from 1 January 2002 and ending 1 January 2005, when all items
in the respective HS categories would be liberalized.   The Committee agreed to come back to discuss
Annex II for which Bangladesh will seek other justification under WTO provisions. On this
understanding, it was agreed to resume in June 2001.
9. One Member, although welcoming the submission of the phase-out plan, pointed out that its
late distribution had not allowed its examination in the Member's capital before the meeting or before
the proposal to adopt conclusions during the one-day meeting.  The Member therefore requested that
if conclusions were to be adopted at the meeting, they be adopted ad referendum  in order to allow
assessment of the phase-out plan.
10. The conclusions were thus adopted ad referendum , subject to further comments being
received from delegations by Tuesday, 19 December.WT/BOP/R/57
Page 3
ANNEX 1
Opening statement by the representative of Bangladesh
1. It is my pleasure to be thanking the distinguished delegates and our friends from the
Secretariat who have found it convenient to be pr esent here this morning in the resumed session on
BOP full consultations for the first time for my c ountry.  Since this is a resumed session there are
technical areas which were covered in the previous full discussion for which I did not, for the sake of
time and to avoid repetitions, go over.
2. As you can see, I am the only person representing my country here in today's meeting which,
in a way, is also a testimony to the economic difficulties that my country has.  Nevertheless, we aredoing are best.  And let me bring to the notice of the Committee here that my country remains as
committed as ever before to play its due part in WTO and fulfil all its obligations that we have
knowingly consciously signed.  For we believe that, at the end of the day, despite the current
difficulty we are in, hopefully our situation will improve over time if the benefits, which we hoped
would accrue from our being a Member, would follow in due course.
3. Since our last meeting on 4 May 2000, and in line with the decisions taken at that meeting,
my country, with valuable support and technical assistance from the WTO which we gratefully
acknowledge, has prepared a phase-out plan of the remaining few balance-of-payments restrictions –
to be exact, 17 items – which are currently in force under Bangladesh's import regime.  This is a rather
small number and, let me say clearly in some cases, to be very honest, the use of grounds forrestrictions were not properly worded in our import policy regime.  Although we have said that these
were for trade reasons, some of these actually were for health reasons and reasons of protecting
growing industries in rural areas of my country, in a country which does not have much industry in
the classic sense that you understand in the developed world.
4. So these were areas which we thought we have the right, under the relevant WTO rules, to
continue with restrictions, but these were wron gly worded as "trade" reasons which we have now
corrected in the new phase-out plan.  This is presented today before the Committee for their kind
consideration and we believe our friends in the Committee will have good reasons to support our
phase-out plan.  Our delegations is convinced that while drawing up this phase-out plan, with direct
support from the Secretariat, my country, as a least-developed one, has made significant sacrifices
which we have done towards fulfilling our obligations.  In that light, therefore, we once again strongly
urge delegates to consider our proposal in its proper perspective – perspective of an LDC country –and approve the phase-out plan at today's meeting.  Such an approval today will enable us to continue
with our very difficult development efforts with more energy and time and in peace.
5. We would once again like to take this opportunity to thank Members for their usual sympathy
and understanding of our unenviable economic plight.  We are doing our best to improve living
conditions in my country and in that task we look forward to receiving sustained support from all ofyou in the wider membership of WTO and from our friends in the Secretariat.  So, these are the few
words that our delegation would like to place on record before we enter into discussions.
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