Dhaka, keen to get duty free access to the US market, has requested Washington to establish two committees on market access and investment, senior commerce ministry officials said.
The committees comprising public and private sector representatives could hold period meetings to identify and remove the hurdles to boost trade and investment between the two countries, they said.
The US has not, until now, responded to the request the commerce ministry conveyed recently, they said.
Bangladesh’s long-standing expectation to get the duty free access to US market is justified because of its women empowerment records as well as growing trade with the US, commerce secretary Mahbub Ahmed told New Age Thursday.
He said that both the issues would get further momentum if the US accepted the proposals to form the two committees to deal with market access and investment.
He also said that US could invest its surplus capital in Bangladesh offering the most liberal and friendly foreign direct investment opportunities.
The proposed US-Bangladesh investment committee could identify areas of investment in Bangladesh, said Mahbub.
He that Bangladesh could further fine-tune its FDI regulations, to facilitate corporate investments from the US.
He said that the committees on trade and investment could be set up under the US-Bangladesh trade and investment cooperation framework agreement.
Commerce Ministry insiders said the proposals were sent also to counter pressure from the US to form two separate committees to address Bangladesh’s labour and women issues.
They said that the government is lukewarm to the pressure from the US.
Commerce ministry officials said the government is not in a position to accommodate fresh pressures on the troubled industrial sector already under mounting pressure from American and European retailers for further reforms to ensure workers’ rights and safety.
The US trade representative officials at a recent Ticfa meeting, held in Dhaka, asked the government to establish two committees to address the labour and women issues.
The US is the largest export destination for Bangladesh with its export earnings crossing $5 billion in 2013. And apparels account for around 90 per cent of Bangladesh’s exports to the US.
-With New Age input
