GSP demand to dominate Ticfa talks on May 17

Bangladesh will once again call for the restoration of trade privileges to the American market when the two countries meet for the third round of Ticfa meetings on May 17 in Dhaka.

The country will highlight the reforms made to strengthen workplace safety and enhance labour rights in the garment sector for regaining the Generalised System of Preferences facility, said a senior official of the commerce ministry.

Bangladesh's GSP privileges were suspended in June 2013, in the aftermath of the Rana Plaza disaster, on grounds of serious shortcomings in workplace safety and poor labour rights.

The commerce ministry has twice submitted progress reports on workplace safety and labour rights to the US Trade Representative, who said more needs to be done to win back the trade privileges.

Apart from trade privileges, issues like investment, bilateral trade and labour would also be discussed during the meeting, the official said.

The Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement or Ticfa is a platform to discuss bilateral trade issues between Bangladesh and the US. Under the agreement, both the countries hold an annual meeting to call upon the respective governments to remove trade disputes, if any.

This year's meeting will be different from the previous editions as the third round of Sustainability Compact discussions will also be held on May 18 in Dhaka.

After the Rana Plaza building collapse, Bangladesh signed the International Labour Organisation-brokered Sustainability Compact with the EU committing to responsible business behaviour and improving workplace safety and labour rights.

Later, the US and Canada became partners of the Sustainability Compact. “So, we are running preparations for both the meetings,” the commerce ministry official said.

The commerce secretary will lead the Bangladesh side in the meeting and the assistant USTR the American side.

Before the suspension of GSP, only 0.54 percent of Bangladesh's total exports were covered by the scheme in a year.

Products like dried fish, ceramics and plastic goods enjoyed the benefit but not the main export earner: apparel.

Earlier, the first Ticfa meeting was held in Dhaka in April 2014 and the second one in Washington in November 2015.