Economists and trade experts on Tuesday said that Bangladesh should not go for any bilateral arrangements like the proposed Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement with the United States for extra facilities in trade and investment sectors as multilateral
arrangements exist under the World Trade Organisation.They also expressed concern that the United States might try to establish its control over Bangladesh’s economy, its sovereignty and the Bay of Bengal region by manipulating the provision of the agreement.
Some others, however, said that the government’s initiative to sign the TICFA with the United States was a positive move for additional benefits in trade and investments.
‘There is no need to sign TICFA to increase trade and investment with the United States as there are multilateral arrangements under the WTO for the purpose and Bangladesh should prefer such arrangements,’ economist Anu Muhammad told New Age.
It is a wrong idea that the agreement will be signed to protect Bangladesh’s interest as there are no such elements in it, he said.
Countries such as the United States always prefer bilateral arrangements to ensure their benefits in any negotiations in the ‘weaker’ countries as they face problems when multi-nation voices are raised in multilateral arrangements, he said.
‘Most of the articles including labour issues, environment, corruption and investment protection in the proposed deal have no relation with the interest of Bangladesh,’ he said.
Anu Muhammad, also member secretary of the national committee to protect oil, gas, mineral resources, power and ports, said that there were no ‘words’ in the draft deal about the protection of Bangladesh’s interest with US investments in gas and oil sectors.
The United States might impose obligations of the implementation of intellectual property rights protection particularly for pharmaceutical and information technology sectors to increase profit margins of US companies while Bangladesh is enjoying exemption from IPR under Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights of the WTO, he said.
Anu said that although the government claimed that the IPR issues with the United States would be dealt under WTO rules, it would be tough for Bangladesh because of the US pressure.
‘How will the proposed pact contribute to removing tariff and non-tariff barriers while the United States continues to impose discriminating trade barriers on Bangladeshi products, especially readymade garments, entering its market?’
Bangladeshi apparel items are to pay on an average 15 per cent to 17 per cent duty to enter the United States while the average duty for other countries is 1 per cent to 3 per cent, Anu Muhammad said.
The Unnayan Onneshan chairperson, Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, also stressed the need for multilateral arrangements as the United States, as a powerful country, would try to use bilateral arrangements in its interest.
‘Strong and powerful countries like the United States give importance to gaining foreign policy, geo-political issues and strategic goals instead of economic affairs,’ he said.
Signing TICFA is not necessary for duty- and quota-free market access to Bangladeshi products in the United States. The goodwill of the country is enough to provide such facilities for Bangladesh, he said adding that FICFA was also not saying anything about providing GSP facilities or duty- and quota-free market access to Bangladeshi products.
Explaining the current situation of export of Bangladeshi products in the
US market under the GSP, Titumir said that in 2012, Bangladesh exported products worth only $35 million which is only 3 per cent of total export to the country.
In the year, Bangladesh paid $732 million in duty against its total export of $4.96 billion to the United States while France, a highly developed country, paid only $383 million in duty against its export of products worth $41 billion, which proves that the US tariff structure is highly biased against Bangladesh, he said.
After the implementation of the agreement, trade imbalances in service sector between the two countries, which is
already against Bangladesh, will increase further, he feared.
On IPR protection issues, Titumir said, ‘The WTO extended exemption from implementing
IPR for Bangladesh till 2021. So I do not
find any justification for TICFA.’
The Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries’s advisory committee member Momenul Huq said that prices of many medicines would go up if the IPR was implemented under
TICFA ignoring exemption given under TRIPS of the WTO.
‘We now manufacture many medicines following the formula patented by US inventors. If the IPR protection is enforced under TICFA, we will need to pay royalty to them. The US companies may also want to export patented medicines in Bangladesh,’ he said.
Any such decision will be much harmful to the local industry, he said.
The Policy Research Institute executive director, Ahsan H Mansur, said that Bangladesh might benefit from the agreement if it could handle it positively and properly to secure its interest in trade and investments.
‘But there is something to be cautious about future agenda such as terrorism and security which may come in to the
forefront from the US side at the forum to be formed under the agreement,’ he said adding that
Bangladesh would need to be careful if such issue came up for discussion as definition of
terrorism and security of the United States were not same in the Bangladesh perspective.
Although the GSP issue is not directly related with TICFA, it is diplomatically related, he said. It will unofficially help Bangladesh to retain GSP privilege, Mansur added.
The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry adviser Manzur Ahmed said that there were no negative sides of the proposed agreement and it
would, rather, help Bangladesh to get additional facilities in export to and investments from the United States.
‘The United States signs such agreements with the country to which it
decides to provide special benefits in trade
and investments sectors. Agreements for providing such benefits will be signed under TICFA,’ he said.
‘The draft agreement says nothing about the IPR implementation beyond WTO rules. On the other hand, Bangladesh is a signatory to international conventions on labour rights issues and the prevention of
corruption. So why questions are being raised on these issues?’ Manzur said, adding that every thing would be implemented following international conventions and domestic laws.
With TICFA development, Bangladesh
will get advantages in negotiations with the United States for GSP facility, he said.
-With New Age input
