The advisory committee meeting on WTO discussed some recent WTO decisions, which also include continuation of trade facilitation negotiation, one of four Singapore issues. The meeting also discussed possible guideline in this regard.

With Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury in chair, the meeting was attended by Annisul Huq, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), MA Awal, president of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), Prof Mustafizur Rahman, research director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue and other officials of the commerce ministry held at its conference room in Dhaka.

The four Singapore issues are trade facilitation, trade and competition policy, trade and investment, and transparency and government procurement.

"We will seek assistance from developed nations to modernise our ports. Movement of natural persons has been included in the new text that is a priority area of Bangladesh," the commerce minister told reporters after the meeting.

Under the trade facilitation, there should not be any binding on the LDCs that don't have financial and technical ability.

Citing an example, a commerce ministry official said if a developed country wants Bangladesh to provide scanning facility at Chittagong port and maximum turnaround of three days, the country seeking such facility should give financial and technical facilities first and then set a reasonable time to implement these.

Products from the LDCs should not be subject to face anti-dumping and counter-veiling measures, he said adding the developed countries have also agreed to withdraw export subsidy gradually.

The least developed countries (LDCs) are supposed to get market access for non-agricultural products from the developed countries and can seek similar trade preference from the developing countries, meeting sources said.

The fifth WTO ministerial meeting collapsed when developed nations were rigid of subsidy issue refusing to withdraw it and the developing countries and LDCs were also rigid of not to start negotiation on Singapore issues.

The timeframe for Doha Development Agenda (DDA) that was supposed to end by December this year has also been extended to December next year, sources said.

The sixth WTO ministerial meeting will be held in Hong Kong in December next year.