Trade officials of Bangladesh and the United States would hold a bilateral meeting in Washington DC in late November to boost trade and investment under a Trade and Investment Cooperation Framework Agreement the countries inked nearly two years back. Duty-free and quota-free access of Bangladeshi products to the US market and restoration of generalised system of preferences, revoked in July 2013 on the grounds of poor labour rights and substandard factory, are the major priorities from Bangladesh side at the meeting, said commerce secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon. The meeting of US-Bangladesh Forum on Trade and Investment under the Ticfa is going to be held one year and seven months after the its first meeting held in Dhaka. ‘Our priorities and agenda will remain the same as those were placed at the first forum meeting, as duty-free and quota-free access to the US market and restoration GSP are directly linked to our economic development and women empowerment,’ Mamoon said. ‘Other issues relating to trade and investment involving the interests of Dhaka and Washington may come up at the bilateral trade talks,’ he said. Commerce ministry officials said the US trade representative’s office in the past week proposed to hold the meeting in the last week of November and the ministry accepted the proposal. ‘The exact date for the meeting is expected to be finalised by the middle of this month,’ a senior official said. The much-talked about Ticfa was signed in November 2013 following about decade-long negotiations between the two countries. On US interests at the second meeting, a top commerce ministry official said that they would be informed by the US side next month on their priorities. He, however, hinted that issues like changes in the Bangladesh insurance policy for importation, lifting the compulsion of fumigation of imported US cotton and stringent import policy on diabetes drug, implementation of intellectual property rights and formation of a women economic empowerment committee and a labour affairs committee might be the US priorities at the meeting. The United States is the single largest export market for Bangladeshi products. The GSP used to bring negligible benefits to Bangladesh in terms of export earnings, as only 5 per cent of the country’s exports to the US market were covered by the zero-duty facility under it. The scheme is, however, tantamount to country’s image, commerce ministry officials believe.
