The United States apprehends that the upcoming general election in Bangladesh may stall pursuance of different ongoing correctives, including labour reforms and investment policies.
"We hope to continue utilizing the TICFA Council as the primary mechanism to engage on labor-law reform, investment policies, intellectual property rights, digital trade, and agricultural cooperation," says acting Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch.
"…I understand that Bangladesh's upcoming elections may make it difficult to maintain the intensive pace of engagement that we had throughout the past year," he also said in a letter sent recently to the commerce ministry.
The acting Assistant US Trade Representative appreciated the hosting of the 7th TICFA Council meeting held in Dhaka on September 20, 2023.
During the TICFA meeting, the United States and Bangladesh discussed a set of issues impacting the bilateral trade relationship, labour reforms, as well as policies impacting the investment climate and digital trade, intellectual-property protection and enforcement, and bilateral cooperation in the agricultural sector, according to a statement issued by the US embassy in Dhaka.
The Bangladesh side desired duty-free export facility restored on the US market and the United States trade representatives stressed expediting amendment to the labour law and ensuring worker right to form trade union.
Mr. Lynch reiterated the importance of Bangladesh passing necessary labour reforms that include providing the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining for all workers and extending these rights to Special Economic Zones (SEZs) as well as the Export Processing Zones (EPZS), addressing violence, harassment and unfair labour practices against workers and labour leaders and removing barriers to trade-union registration.
He also assured of collaborating with Bangladesh government to ensure that labour-law reforms align with international labour standards.
He believes promoting the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining can help Bangladesh prosper economically.
He expressed the hope to continue engaging constructively on these issues before the next TICFA meeting.
The USTR hopes to hold virtual meetings on the intellectual-property and Digital Trade-related issues.
It seeks to hold a technical-level virtual meet on the passed Copyright Act Amendments, Patent Act, Industrial Designs Act, and the IPR Enforcement (Import and Export) Rules with relevant agencies. "We look forward to deepening our engagement with Bangladesh on agricultural biotechnology and other innovation technologies as well as climate-smart agriculture," Mr Brendan Lynch writes.
He, however, mentions that nonpayment and profit-repatriation issues have been an ongoing concern over the past year for U.S. companies that already invested across all sectors of the market, which has already negatively impacted potential investment decisions in Bangladesh.
To track these payment issues for U.S. companies they will plan to be in touch with the Bangladesh Bank.
Bangladesh already made most improvements in labour rights, workplace safety etc through implementation of the 16-point plan of actions prescribed by the US Trade Representative (USTR), a senior official said.
In June 2013, the US suspended the GSP for Bangladesh after the Rana Plaza building collapse. No breakthrough has been in sight yet. The TICFA was signed between the two countries on November 25, 2013. Since then, seven meetings have so far been held.
Currently, the US is the single-largest export destination for Bangladeshi products with earnings worth around US$10 billion only from textile and apparel items.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
