They said lack of unity among the developing countries to set a comprehensive agenda in the WTO's Hong Kong ministerial meeting deprived developing countries including Bangladesh in international trade.

Blaming Bangladesh team in the meeting headed by commerce minister for their weak negotiation, the speakers said their stand in the meeting was self-contradictory.

Left Democratic Front (LDF) organised the seminar on " WTO Hong Kong Round: United Developed World Versus Divided Third World" at Moni Singha-Farhad memorial trust Bhaban in the city with Ruhin Hossain Prince in the chair.

They said rival developed countries are more powerful and more united than developing countries. They still heavily subsidise their agriculture to compete our agriculture, they added.

Presenting a keynote paper, Prof MM Akash of economics department, Dhaka University, said the third world countries have to raise their voice for reciprocal advantages.

To ensure free movement of labour, he demanded visa-free access to all over the world.

"As the government doesn't admit the price inflation and dollar crisis in the country we cant expect a good negotiation from the government team joined the WTO ministerial conference", said Dr Kazi Khaliquzzaman, president of Bangladesh Economic Society.

Prof Dr Anu Muhammad of Jahangirnagar University said, our finance minister often opposes the policy guidelines of IMF and World Bank but in practice he does more than what they prescribe.

Economist Dr Ananya Raihan, Prof Rashed Titumir of Dhaka University and central leaders of LDF spoke at the seminar.