Labour, IPR issues still remain barriers to BD-US TECF deal

Syful Islam and Talha Bin Habib Bangladesh and the United States have made substantive progress in the negotiations over a broad-based economic deal, but the two countries are yet to resolve some knotty issues in areas of labour and copyrights, officials said Sunday. Commerce Minister Faruk Khan said that the government would go for the Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum (TECF) agreement with the US only if it meets the country's interests. "We are interested (to sign the deal). But we will follow our existing rules before inking the deal with the US to protect our trade interests," he told newsmen after meeting senior American diplomat Alyssa Ayres at his office. Newly-appointed US Ambassador to Dhaka Dan Mozena last week said that Washington was eager to sign the proposed Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum (TECF) in an effort to strengthen further the existing ties between the two countries. Mr Khan said he discussed with the US delegation on intellectual property rights (IPR), labour issues, and ILO convention that Bangladesh has followed strictly. Local trade officials are also not yet optimistic enough about an early signing of the deal, saying that Dhaka and Washington are still exchanging letters and need more time to settle the 'irritants'. "We have sent a draft text of the deal to Washington DC some days back. But we have not yet received any response to that from the US," commerce secretary Ghulam Hossain told the FE. "Washington will inform us if there is any development. So, we are yet not certain when the deal would be signed," Mr. Hossain said, replying to a question. The government has assigned the commerce secretary and foreign secretary Mijarul Quayes to lead the negotiations over the deal -- set to be the first umbrella economic pact between the two countries. Trade officials said they have narrowed down the gap on draft clauses of the accord relating to labour, environment and intellectual property rights. "But more negotiations will be needed to help resolve the irritants that are still lingering on," said an official. Sources said a team of US officials was earlier scheduled to visit Dhaka in August to discuss the issues but the visit was deferred. The commerce secretary, foreign secretary and director general of WTO Cell at the commerce ministry Amitabh Chakrabarti had visited Washington DC on June 29-30 this year to negotiate the "unresolved clauses" of the deal. "The US has been insisting on mentioning elimination of child labour in the deal. But we want it to be mentioned in general terms, instead of citing it specifically. We want to follow the ILO convention on child rights," said Mr. Hossain. Earlier, Washington agreed to delete the words, "corruption and bribery", from the TECF document, as was preferred by Dhaka. Instead, it agreed to insert the phrase "combating and preventing unlawful activities in international trade and investment", in line with the request made by the government of Bangladesh and its private sector. The Bangladesh officials say they have strong objection to the use of words such as "corruption and bribery" as they don't befit the dignity and status of the country. Earlier, Dhaka sought removal of some controversial words from the TECF draft during negotiations with the US delegation in April this year. The US proposed to sign the TECF deal last year after Bangladesh had declined to sign the earlier proposed Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), because of insertion of some "controversial" clauses in its draft. Officials said the latest accord would help boost trade between the two nations as the US is the single largest export market for Bangladeshi goods. Last year Bangladesh made shipment of merchandise worth around $5.0 billion to the USA, constituting about a quarter of the country's aggregate annual export earnings.