Bangladesh and the United States will discuss trade and investment issues with a special focus on workers’ safety and rights on May 17, the first such meeting after the Trump Administration assumed office.The discussion, the third of its kind, will be held under the Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (Ticfa) signed between the two countries back in November 2013, a senior Commerce Ministry official told UNB.He said the two countries will also discuss new areas of cooperation as Ticfa provides a mechanism for both governments to discuss those issues apart from trade and investment ones.The third Ticfa meeting was originally scheduled for December 13, 2016 but was apparently delayed for recently held elections in the US.The first Ticfa meeting was held in Dhaka in April 2014 and the second annual meeting in Washington, DC.In June 2013, the then Obama Administration suspended the eligibility of Bangladesh for tariff benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme which is designed to promote economic growth in the developing world by providing preferential duty-free entry. Bangladesh will present ‘enormous progress’ made over the past years in line with the US-designed ‘Bangladesh Action Plan 2013′ during the third Ticfa meeting, another senior official told UNB. Many countries have already acknowledged the progress and appreciated Bangladesh’s efforts, he said. The US government outlined next steps in a longstanding effort to address workers’ safety issues in Bangladesh in a ‘meaningful way’ after the tragedies of the November 2012 Tazreen Fashions factory fire and the April 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse, said a diplomat. The government expressed its displeasure for not restoring GSP benefit for Bangladesh despite ‘fulfilling’ all the conditions laid out by the then Obama Administration. Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed earlier said Ticfa will remain meaningless if duty privileges are not restored for Bangladesh. Bangladeshi readymade garments are, however, not among the listed products that enjoy GSP benefit in the US market. He also alleged that the US government is not restoring Bangladesh’s GSP benefits on ‘political grounds’ which was disagreed by US Ambassador in Dhaka Marcia Bernicat claiming there has been no ‘political basis’ for GSP suspension. For the US, a diplomat said, they ‘track and discuss’ Bangladeshi efforts to improve workers’ safety and their rights. “This is an important priority for the United States,” he said acknowledging that Bangladesh seeks to prevent tragedies in the RMG sector and there have been successes. The United States Trade Representative (USTR), the chief trade negotiator for the American government, represents the US government in the Ticfa meeting.
