Delegation leaves for Ticfa meeting in Washington

A Bangladesh delegation left for Washington to attend the second Ticfa meeting on Friday, amid high hopes of winning back trade privileges from the United States.

At the meeting, Bangladesh will highlight the progresses made for strengthening workplace safety and improving labour rights under the guidelines of the Bangladesh Action Plan, a 16-point agenda given by the Obama administration after suspension of trade privileges in June 2013.

Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, senior secretary to the commerce ministry, will lead the Bangladesh delegation to the meeting scheduled to be held in Washington on November 23.

Signed in November 2013, the Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement is a platform between the US and Bangladesh to settle any trade-related dispute.

The first Ticfa meeting was held in Dhaka in April last year. With the hope of regaining the generalised system of preferences scheme, Bangladesh has twice submitted its progress report to the United States Trade Representative, the chief trade negotiator for the Obama administration, but received no positive response from the US side.

Of the fulfilled conditions, the amendment to the labour law and formulation of the supporting rules were major steps.

Bangladesh has recruited more than 200 additional factory inspectors, allowed trade unionism with full freedom of association.

Bangladesh has already published a publicly accessible database and a hotline on the garment sector and completed the preliminary inspections of the 3,500 garment factories. It also signed a sustainability compact with the European Union, the main export destination for Bangladesh, in July 2013, and in so doing, committed to responsible business behaviour. Later, the US also joined the compact.

Although the GSP had covered only 0.54 percent or $26 million of Bangladesh's total exports to the US a year, the continuation of the privilege was important as the other countries where Bangladesh enjoys duty benefits might be influenced by the US's decision.

Apart from the GSP reclaim, Bangladesh will also seek the US's support in the upcoming 10th World Trade Organisation Summit, according to Shawkat Ali Waresi, additional secretary to the commerce ministry.

At the WTO summit, Bangladesh will ask the US to include the country's main export item, garment, in the duty-free package that the developed countries committed to in the fifth WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in 2005, Waresi said.

The American government has kept apparel items out of the package.