Bangladesh, Sept. 16 -- A lack of modernising global trading system and absence of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) would create an uneven turf in which the least-developed countries (LDCs) would lose out in terms of economic growth and exports.

Advertisement The intergovernmental agency dealing with world trade governance rang the alarm bell in the wake of its virtual existential crisis with big powers dabbling in tariff and trade wars.

And, if the current structure of multilateral trade cooperation, under the umbrella of the WTO, is replaced by an unstructured network of free-trade agreements (FTAs), LDCs may lose 16.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), which is more than three times the losses projected for high-income econ...