The cabinet on Monday approved the draft of the Trade and Investment Cooperation Framework Agreement (TICFA). Commerce minister Gulam Quader said signing of the agreement would boost the country’s exports to the USA. Talking to the media, he said the agreement would offer a platform for Bangladesh and the USA to discuss bilateral trade issues, including trade barriers and opportunities and also investment in the two countries.
Asked whether the government approved the TICFA draft sensing cancellation of the GSP, the minister said it was not true, but he added that signing of TICFA would give a leverage to the country to have facilities like the GSP.
Briefing the press on the issue, cabinet secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said: “It’ll help flourish our trade and investment, and would be implemented as soon as possible. After the signing of the agreement, a joint forum of the two countries will hold regular discussions on bilateral trade and investments which will help reduce the disagreement on the issue between Dhaka and Washington.”
According to the draft, the USA would not be able to take any unilateral decision on trade and investment with Bangladesh, he added.
Under the proposed agreement, both countries will abide by their international commitments on labour rights, fight against corruption and protection of Intellectual Property Rights, as it will be implemented under the laws of the respective countries.
The commerce ministry of Bangladesh and the Office of the United States Trade Representative will sign the agreement on behalf of the respective sides. TICFA focuses on security, protection of investment, Intellectual Property Rights and standard of labour. With the approval of TICFA, chances of getting the GSP from the USA, which has been pending, look bright. The GSP is a duty-waiver scheme of the US government for least developed countries, introduced in 1976. Bangladesh has continued lobbying to retain the GSP, as the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations (the largest trade union in the US) filed a petition with the United States Trade Representative to discontinue the GSP after the Tazreen Fashions fire incident in November last. The USTR is yet to give its verdict on the issue. Bangladesh attended the hearing in the USA on March 28.
The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also approved the proposal to appoint senior staff nurses in vacant posts on an ad hoc basis, and to raise their minimum age of recruitment to 36 years.
The United States has hailed the Cabinet’s decision to approve the draft of TICFA. Washington also expressed its desire to hold further discussions with Dhaka to sign the deal in the near future.
“We welcome the Cabinet’s decision to approve TICFA and look forward to further discussions so that the agreement can be signed in the near future,” Kelly McCarthy, Press and Information Officer at the US Embassy in Dhaka, told The Independent.
-With The Independent input
