The significance of TICFA for BD

At 10 in the morning USA Eastern Standard Time Monday Bangladesh and the USA executed the Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (TICFA) after nearly 12 years of wrangling. In the intervening period and even after the signing of the agreement we have expert after expert writing columns in newspapers or preaching on television talk-shows on how harmful or how wonderful it will be for Bangladesh!
So what is all the fuss about? The title of the agreement is a dead give-away. It clearly states that it is an agreement for a cooperation forum on trade and investment -- nothing more, nothing less. The USA has similar forums with 92 other countries and/or regional trade organizations according to a report in the Financial Express yesterday. It basically means that Bangladesh now has an open invitation from the largest economy in the world and the second largest importer of goods from Bangladesh at the trade negotiation table at least once a year.
That is certainly a welcome provision, especially since Bangladesh lacks economic and organizational muscle to force trade issues through the WTO forums. However, we must keep in mind that this invitation is available to 92 other countries and regional trade bodies as well. If we are to make anything of this arrangement then we must develop our capacity to negotiate trade issues effectively.
Bangladesh is generally adept at pleading its case for development assistance. Such pleas are usually meant for sympathetic development partners who usually are all too ready to do our bidding and the negotiations there are mostly on procedural norms and policy diktats.
When it comes to trade though we should not expect any free lunches from even the largest economy in the world. Trade negotiations are always between trading partners as equals -- there are no givers or takers -- there are only winners or losers. Can Bangladesh possibly butt heads at the negotiation table with an economic giant and come out without bruises let alone a winner? The answer is a vehement yes -- as long as we keep our eyes on the ball, that is, focus on the merit of the trade issues on the table and do our homework, that is, carrying out all possible situational analyses, laying out all possible arguments or counter-arguments from the other party and putting together all deal clinchers, that is, facts and figures that firmly establishes our position and/or negates any possible position of the other party.
Is it conceivable that Bangladesh can muster all this? There are both good and bad antecedents. It is only natural that we should draw inspiration from the examples where came out ahead in trade settlements such as the case with Niko (the gas drilling company) or Tyco (the submarine cable laying company) or India (countervailing measures on battery exports) and others. But we should not also lose sight of the bad examples, such as failure to address non-tariff barriers to regional countries, to avoid the pitfalls at the negotiation table.
The TICFA is significant for a number of other reasons apart from having a permanent seat at the trade negotiation table with the USA. The preamble of the agreement has four very distinct expectations aside from all the usual trade and investment related humdrum. The foremost among them is paragraph 6 which gives heightened importance to 'trade in services'! Hello there, my colleagues in the IT services industry or for that matter, other industry colleagues in engineering services, accounting services, HR services and the like! Are you listening? Here is a grand opening for negotiating our way into the largest professional services market in the world. Can we seize it?
The second significant expectation is holding our end of the bargain on protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. The agreement wants to make us accountable to the TRIPS provisions of the WTO and the Berne convention on copyrights as Bangladesh is a signatory to both. Microsoft, Oracle and other American software companies as well as distributors of American pharmaceutical products will be elated I am sure. But what we need to recognize is that this provision can cut both ways. To make it count for us we must update our arcane patents law and encourage businesses and individuals to patent their ideas/inventions/processes and register the copyrights of their software and designs. As the agreement is mutually reciprocal any intellectual property rights recognized by one party must be recognized by the other. Are you seeing the inherent power of this arrangement? To make it work the country must give increased priority to tertiary and higher education and allocate significantly more resources and incentives for research and development.
The third significant expectation is that TICFA cannot be used or seen as an over-riding agreement over rules under WTO and ILO or provisions under the previous bilateral investment treaty with the USA signed in 1986 or any other multi-lateral agreements where Bangladesh and USA are signatories. This means that contrary to anything that can be construed out of the provisions of TICFA we shall still have recourse to WTO or other multi-lateral institutions if we ever find our interests harmed.
The fourth significant aspect is that it encourages both parties to settle trade (and investment) issues through this bilateral forum and it guarantees addressing such issues once tabled. Can anyone think of a better way to strengthen our trade and investment interests in USA?
Of course there are detractors who think signing a trade and investment agreement with the USA is tantamount to capitulation of our national interests to the hegemony of the USA. Such thinking has its roots in the perception that Bangladesh as a poor developing nation is severely handicapped to play ball with the mightiest nation on earth both economically and militarily. I think not. If your super-rich neighbour guarantees you a respectable seat at their dinner table, you don't turn them down -- you rather seize the moment and hold your turf as an equal. That is the respectful thing to do.
    E-mail : [email protected]