Dhaka and Washington are likely to ink the Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement in the coming weeks as Bangladesh has sent the cabinet endorsed draft text of the deal for US approval.
“We have sent them a copy of the draft Ticfa, which the cabinet has endorsed, along with the Bangla version. The US side will look into it for approval,” Mahfuzur Rahman, director general of the Americas desk at the foreign ministry told the Dhaka Tribune.
After Washington approves it, both parties will be ready for signing the agreement, he added.
Generally it takes about a week to complete the scrutiny and other formalities, sources in the foreign ministry said.
US ambassador to Dhaka Dan Mozena, after a meeting with Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque at the ministry on Monday, said the two sides are likely to sign a couple of agreements including the much talked about Ticfa in the coming weeks to institutionalise their relationship in various areas of cooperation.
“We are looking at some agreements that I hope to sign in the coming weeks,” US Ambassador Dan Mozena said Tuesday.
On Ticfa, he said: “We just have to find a time and place to sign that.”
The government in a cabinet meeting on June 17 endorsed the draft Ticfa, following four years of negotiation with Washington.
Ticfa is a legally non-binding agreement, which emphasises prohibition of protectionist trade policy. The agreement has a 16-paragraph preamble and the main agreement has seven articles.
Dhaka has similar contracts with 42 countries while Washington has similar deals with over 90 countries.
Protection of intellectual property rights, role of the international convention on anti-corruption and its importance, protection of labour rights, and WTO commitment of both the countries are stipulated in the preamble.
Washington is the second biggest trading partner of Bangladesh with an annual two-way trade of $6bn. MoUs on counterterrorism cooperation
The director general of the Americas Desk said the US side had handed over the final draft of the cooperation on counterterrorism on Monday and Bangladesh will scrutinise it.
“After the scrutiny, it will be ready for signing,” Mahfuz said.
On May 27, US Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Bangladesh Home Secretary CQK Mushtaq Ahmed were supposed to sign the MoU in Dhaka, but it did not happen.
US ambassador Mozena said both sides were working on other instruments of cooperation on drug enforcement, science and technology.
Mahfuz said both sides had agreed on principle to sign the MoUs on science and technology and drug enforcement, the drafts of which are almost final.
“We are working on technical nitty-gritties and it will be sorted out soon,” Mahfuz added.