Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed yesterday said the Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (Ticfa) would be insignificant if the GSP (General System of Preference) facilities to the US market are not restored.
“We have already met all the 16 conditions laid down in the Bangladesh Action Plan,” the minister said after a meeting with a US delegation.
During a meeting with the visiting United States Trade Representative (USTR) team Tofail said, “As USTR delegation is satisfied with the initiatives in ensuring factory safety and labour rights, there should be no bar in getting the GSP back in the US market.”
An eight-member delegation of USTR led by its Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Michael J Delaney held a meeting with the commerce minister at the latter’s secretariat office in the city.
Tofail argued: “Bangladesh has signed the Ticfa with the US government in November 2013 mainly to restore the generalised system of preference facilities to the US market.
The Ticfa is nothing but a platform for settling any trade-related dispute through mutual discussion between Bangladesh and the USA, the minister clarified.
Attending the meeting, the USTR delegation, however, suggested the government to form a separate, single trade union in each EPZs through merging the existing Workers’ Welfare Associations (WWAs) for the restoration of the GSP to the US market.
In Bangladesh, the WWAs are considered as workers’ platforms in the factories housed in the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) to protect their rights in absence of trade unions.
“We have little to do. We have done a lot to regain the GSP (generalized system of preference),” Tofail told journalists during a briefing at his office.
As asked whether the government has any plan to merge all the WWAs to a single trade union or not, the minister has categorically said: “No, this is not a condition for us.”
“We cannot introduce the trade unions in the factories located in the EPZs because the government signed an agreement with the investors in 1999 assuring them that there will be no trade unions in the EPZs to protect the workers’ rights,” Tofail reminded.
In this regard, the minister also said, “So, instead of the trade unions, the government allowed the WWAs, which have been functioning like unions in those specialised economic zones, where mainly the overseas entrepreneurs have invested.”