The 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11) of the World Trade Organisation opened in Argentine Capital Buenos Aires on Sunday afternoon (December 10) with a forceful declaration by four Latin American presidents pledging support for the WTO and its guardianship of the multilateral trading system.
A press statement of the organisation in this regard said that the four presidents in their joint declaration reaffirmed the importance of the multilateral trading system as the "best way to take advantage of the opportunities and to face the challenges of international trade".
The four presidents are: President Mauricio Macri of Argentina, President Michel Temer of Brazil, President Horacio Cartes of Paraguay and President Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay.
The presidential declaration was supported by epresentatives of Colombia, Guyana, Mexico, Peru and Suriname, who also signed the declaration at the conference's opening ceremony of MC11.
WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo welcomed the joint declaration of support. "This is a huge display of commitment to the idea of free trade as a force for good, and to the multilateral trading system itself."
The MC11, scheduled to be run until December 13, is being chaired by Minister Susana Malcorra of Argentina.
Trade ministers, ambassadors and officials will discuss a range of issues over the next three days, including agriculture, development, fisheries subsidies, domestic regulation of services, and electronic commerce, said the WTO statement.
Tofail Ahmed, the commerce minister of Bangladesh, is leading the 20-member Bangladesh delegation.
Among the delegation members, two law makers Professor Ali Ashraf and (Capt. Retd.) Tajul Islam; commerce secretary Shubhashish Bose; Ambassador & permanent representative in Bangladesh Permanent Mission in Geneva M Shamim Ahsan; DG of WTO Cell of the commerce ministry Md Munir Chowdhury, director to the cell Ziaul Huq, vice-chairman of the Export Promotion Bureau Bijoy Bhattacharjee, economic minister of Bangladesh Permanent Mission in Geneva Supriya Kumar Kundu, minister of the mission Dr Mostafa Abid Khan, economic minister of Bangladesh Embassy in Washington DC Shahabuddin Patwary and counsellor Akter Hossain were present in the opening ceremony.
International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh (ICCB) president Mahbubur Rahman, former FBCCI president Mir Nasir Hossain, Dhaka chamber president Mr Abul Kasem Khan, senior vice president of FBCCI Sk Fazle Fahim, former first vice president of BKMEA Mohammad Hatem and director of BGMEA Munir Hossain also joined the opening ceremony as a part of the Bangladesh delegation, according to a message received from Buenos Aires.