Sagar Biswas :Bangladesh government is going to take strong stance to get back the Generalized System of Preferences [GSP] in the next meeting of Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement [TICFA] to be held in US capital Washington DC on November 23.A five-member strong team led by Senior Secretary of Commerce Ministry Hedayetullah Al Mamun and comprising Secretaries of the Foreign and the Labour and Employment ministries will attend the TICFA meeting to deal the issue, the officials said on Tuesday.”In the TICFA meeting, we [govt] are going to raise the demand to give back us the GSP. Hope, the US government will not oppose to return the facility [GSP]. You know, the TICFA agreement has been signed with a view to enhancing trade cooperation and investment between Bangladesh and USA,” said Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed. But the US Ambassador in Dhaka Marcia Stephens Bernicat differed her views in this regard and said that Bangladesh needs to do ‘a few more works’ to get back the GSP.Tofail Ahmed and Marcia Bernicat issued the above reverse statements about GSP in a joint press conference after a bilateral meeting between the two sides at Commerce Ministry in the Secretariat yesterday. Commerce Minister said: “The factories of ready-made -garments [RMG] sector in Bangladesh are of international standard and safe. The working atmosphere is beautiful. The workers’ rights, working environment and other facilities have been ensured here through amending the labour law.” Replying to a question, Tofail Ahmed said, “We, both sides, have elaborately discussed the incoming TICFA issue in our today’s [Tuesday] meeting. Apart from TICFA, we have also discussed GSP and other bilateral issues. I’ve categorically told the US envoy that the fate of TICFA totally depends on the future of GSP. It will not be possible to make TICFA successful bypassing the GSP.” On 25 November 2013, Bangladesh signed the much-talked about TICFA with the US after more than a decade of wrangling, floating a forum for bilateral talks on labour and trade issues. Earlier, more than 50 countries have signed TICFA with the US. “Several foreign diplomats, including US Ambassador Marcia Stephens Bernicat, have already visited different RMG factories. And all of them have expressed satisfaction over the overall environment, especially workers’ rights and safety of workplace. ……So, there must not be any reason for the US to block the GSP,” he further said.On the other hand, about the outcome of [Tuesday’s] meeting, the US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat said, “I’ll work hard so that Dhaka can get back its GSP facilities. I hope, Bangladesh will get return GSP facility after fulfilling all pre-conditions……After TICFA meeting, I’ll also do my best as GSP is restored.” Answering a question, the US envoy said, “It is not true that GSP was cancelled for political reason. This facility [GSP] was never cancelled for mere political interest. The USA wants that the RMG workers in Bangladesh will be safe and the sector will advance day by day.” “I visited several RMG factories and saw that the workers were discharging their duties in a good environment. We haven’t given any new conditions [to Bangladesh]. So far as I know, the country [Bangladesh] will have to fulfil a few more conditions [16 conditions earlier had set by the US] to get back the facility,” She clarified. Meanwhile, the volume of export from Dhaka to Washington has been increasing day by day. Around 17 per cent export has increased in last four months. In 2014-15 fiscal, Bangladesh exported different goods to Washington amounting to US$ 5783.43 million. Dhaka, however, imported different goods worth about US$ 761.10 million during the aforesaid period. In that case, the export to US [from Bangladesh] had increased to about US$ 5022.33 million, according to statistics provided by Commerce Ministry. In this situation, the Commerce Minister also said that he would urge the US government to sign TTP [Trans-Pacific Partnership] agreement with Bangladesh to encourage the ongoing bilateral trade. “We think, it will not hamper Bangladesh’s trade for signing TTP by the US authorities. Bangladesh gets a duty-free facility from most of the TTP signing countries,” the Minister said. The TPP is an agreement to form a free trade region within 12 countries-the US, Brunei, Chile, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Peru, Vietnam, Mexico, Canada and Japan-apparently with a view to linking 40 percent of the world economy.
