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TICFA: not now, says govt again

Star Business Report
Bangladesh has no immediate plan to sign TICFA as the country needs more time to set much higher labour standards tagged by the US as a precondition with the trade and investment cooperation deal, an official said.
The US wants immediate elimination of child and forced labour from all sectors and permission for trade unionism at factories, but Bangladesh wants to implement these conditions in phases.
The US has been pressing Bangladesh for signing the Trade and Investment Cooperation Framework Agreement (TICFA) for several years.
The latest call came in December.
"Bangladesh will call Assistant US Trade Representative for South Asia Michael J Delaney in Dhaka soon to discuss the issue,” said an official of the commerce ministry after a TICFA-related meeting at the secretariat in Dhaka yesterday.
Commerce Minister GM Quader, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, and Prime Minister's Foreign Affairs Adviser Gowher Rizvi were present at the meeting, chaired by Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
Earlier, Delany came to Dhaka to discuss the TICFA issue in April 2011, but both the countries failed to reach any consensus.
If signed, TICFA will offer a platform for Bangladesh and the US to discuss bilateral trade issues, including trade barriers, opportunities and investment in the two countries.
The commerce ministry official said the Bangladesh government sat in a meeting after receiving a letter from Bangladesh embassy in Washington in December. In the letter, the US government urged Bangladesh to sign the deal as soon as possible.
“But, Bangladesh cannot do so in absence of a consensus regarding the labour rights issue," the official said. “The US wants to see the practice of trade unionism in Bangladeshi factories soon, which is not possible for the country right away,” he said.
After the meeting, Muhith said TICFA is a matter of negotiation and it is still continuing.
“This is the seventh or eighth round of meeting. We have no plan to place the TICFA issue in the cabinet meeting now,” he said.
During her visit to Bangladesh in May last year, the immediate past US secretary of state Hillary Clinton also discussed the TICFA issue.
Ahead of Hillary's visit, Bangladesh had finalised the draft of TICFA agreement and it is now awaiting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's approval, the commerce ministry official said.
In the first US-Bangladesh partnership dialogue in Washington during September 19-20, both the countries discussed the TICFA issue.
The TICFA came as a second effort from the US after the first one — the Trade and Investment Frame-