Dhaka Bureau: United States Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (TICFA) meeting in Dhaka today. A 10-member delegation led by USTR Christopher Wills, Assistant for South and Central Asia Affairs of the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), arrived in Dhaka.
The seventh council meeting of TIKFA will begin on Wednesday (September 20) morning at an elite hotel in the capital. Tapan Kanti Ghosh, Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, will lead Bangladesh. It is known that Bangladesh wants preferential trade facilities in the US market, duty exemption for export products, including ready-made garments, and exclusive assistance from the country to deal with possible risks after exiting the less developed country.
On the other hand, the United States wants a quick solution to the complexities of proper factory safety, especially the working environment, the child labor ban, and intellectual property issues. There is a mutual desire to facilitate bilateral trade and investment. In 2013, the TIKFA Agreement was signed between the two countries for the same purpose.
A decade of the agreement is about to pass by now. During this period, six meetings were held between Dhaka and Washington. However, from these meetings, Bangladesh has not achieved anything significant on the issue of interest. That is, the achievement is almost zero. GSP facility was not found. On the contrary, Bangladesh is paying the highest tariff in the US market among 232 countries.
