The second Ticfa meeting between Dhaka and Washington in the US capital today will discuss to boost bilateral trade and investment, officials said.
The meeting will also discuss the issues like generalized system of preferences (GSP) and duty-free access of Bangladeshi products to the US market.
A five-member delegation led by Commerce Secretary Hedayet Ullah Al Mamun will represent the Bangladesh side in the meet. Foreign secretary and labour and employment secretary are also in the delegation.
The delegattion will meet with the US investor and business assciation leaders during the visit.
“We hope that the US investors will inject more funds into Bangladesh,” said Hedayet Ullah Al Mamun.
US Deputy Chief of Mission David Meale, who will represent the US Embassy at Ticfa, said Ticfa is about expanding the potential of the two countries’ bilateral trade and investment relationship, which includes promising new areas, from pharmaceuticals to increased investment in infrastructure to information technology.
Earlier on November 10, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said
Bangladesh will focus on GSP issue in the Ticfa meeting with the USA with a high hope that there will be a solution to the long-pending issue.
“We expect to get back GSP benefit after the Ticfa meeting. Bangladesh will keep GSP issue on high of its agenda,” he said.
US Ambassador in Dhaka Marcia Bernicat said Bangladesh export growth to the US market is “robust” and the GSP will be in the agenda of the Ticfa meeting.
She said the future export potential of the country will also be discussed at the meeting as some products like pharmaceuticals has a good potential of to the US in future.
“We’ll also discuss making two-way trades more robust. How we can increase the trade in both ways. We’re now partner countries, we’ve shared values and US is friend of Bangladesh,” Bernicat added.
There will also be discussions on other topics including intellectual property rights, government procurement policy, import liences, quota, investment climate, signing MoU on women empowerment and assistance in science and technology sector.
Besides, improvement of labour standards in the Bangladeshi factories will also be presented in the meeting as this was a condition to get back GSP in the US market.
Officials said the US is likely to demand withdrawal of new tax on Coca Cola, a US brand of veberage, as the Bangladesh government increased tax on the drink to 25% in the current budget from 15% earlier. The US officials want it to reduce to former rate.
About intellectual property rights, the US officials said no talks on the issue is necessary now as the World Trade Organisation has already extended the property rights waiver to 2033, according to the Ticfa working papers.
Hedayet Ullah Al Mamun said Bangladesh hopes that the US investors will inject more funds into Bangladesh. He said he will have meetings with the US investors associations.
He said discussions on the revival of GSP and allowing Bangladeshi products duty-free access to the US market will “definitely be held.”
Secretary said they would also talk to high officials of the US influential labour group AFL-CIO about Bangladesh’s improvements in labour standards.
Regarding the US-led Trans-Pacific Partership (TPP), he hoped that the US officials would take Bangladesh’s view on the TPP.
The first meeting of the Trade and Investment Cooperation Framework Agreement (Ticfa) was held in April, 2014 in Dhaka, after the much-talked-about bilateral trade pact was signed between Bangladesh and the USA in November, 2013.
