Govt to sign Ticfa soon: Commerce Minister
Commerce Minister Ghulam Muhammed Quader has said Bangladesh is set to sign the Trade and Investment Cooperation Framework Agreement (Ticfa) with the United States soon.
“Many see Ticfa as a big issue which it is not. It’ll basically to create opportunities for talks on trade issues,” he said on Saturday at a programme.
The minister said talks with the US over the generalised system of preferences (GSP) was nearing its end -- slightly delayed, as it were, by the Rana Plaza collapse in Savar.
So far, nearly 1100 people, mostly female readymade garment workers have been confirmed dead in the collapse that resurrected the safety issue in Bangladesh factories.
The European Union, largest importer of Bangladesh-made garments has threatened to reconsider its GSP facility unless the South Asian nation worked on improving safety standards.
Bangladesh, the second largest exporter of readymade garments after China, is a lucrative destination for global brands due to its cheap labour and low costs. The sector employs around four million people, most of whom are workers who earn as little as $38 a month.
A fire at a garment factory last November had prompted several US lawmakers to press their government for cancelling its GSP facility with Bangladesh. Now this is up for hearing .
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Govt to sign Ticfa soon: Commerce Minister - bdnews24.com
Mozena hopeful on signing Ticfa
The US Ambassador in Dhaka Dan Mozena on Tuesday expressed hope that Bangladesh and America would ‘soon’ be able to sign Ticfa.
He made the comment when Bangladesh was grappling to retain its GSP facility in the US market that allowed some of its products duty-free access.
The Foreign Minister Dipu Moni is in Washington now and expected to meet the Secretary of State John Kerry in a maiden meeting on May 17 when the issue will be discussed among a range of bilateral issues, the ambassador said.
He was replying a question at the sidelines of the closing ceremony of US and Bangladesh joint “multinational, inter-agency disaster response workshop” in Dhaka.
The US has long been pressing for the TICFA that will give a platform to identify trade and investment related problems and ways of resolving them.
But Bangladesh was not responding until recently when the GSP issue came to the fore.
The Commerce Minister Ghulam Muhammed Quader recently said Bangladesh was set to sign the Agreement.
“Many see Ticfa as a big issue which it is not. It’ll basically to create opportunities for talks on trade issues,” he said when Bangladesh’s workplace safety issue was rekindled by the collapse of Savar building that claimed over 1000 lives.
The influential American Federation of Labour-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) submitted a petition to the US government on Jun 22, 2007 to revoke Bangladesh’s GSP facility, which allowed duty-free market access of some products, over concerns about labour conditions.
The final hearing was concluded in March, but Mozena earlier suggested continued efforts before the decision was reached by the first week of June.
Though Bangladesh enjoyed the GSP facility for exporting products worth about $26.3 million in US in 2011, the US Ambassador earlier said losing the facility would send a ‘negative message’ across the globe.
The major export item, garments, is not enjoying the facility in US market.
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Mozena hopeful on signing Ticfa - bdnews24.com
