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Ticfa meeting
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will seek simplifying procedures for registering pharmaceutical products alongside investment from the US International Development Finance Corporation and in Bangladesh’s energy sector, he said.
Issues of labour rights, trade union registration, existing labour practices, labour law reforms, including amendments to Bangladesh labour act, and labour rights in special economic and export processing zones will also be discussed in the meeting, he said.
The issues of labour inspection and enforcement will also be discussed, according to the negotiation agenda.
A recent fall in exports from Bangladesh to the US will be discussed at the Ticfa meeting, Ghosh also said.
Shipments to the country’s largest export destination slipped 6.82 per cent year-on-year to $9.70 billion in fiscal year 2022-23, as per data from the Export Promotion Bureau.
Issues such as support for Bangladesh’s status graduation to a developing nation from a least developed country (LDC) and support for establishing quality certification infrastructure will be discussed in the meeting, according to the agenda.
Bangladesh will also seek US support for extension of the LDC trade benefits for six years past the LDC graduation, reasoning severe fallouts of the economy from the pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war, said Ghosh.
Support of the US is very much needed for the extension of the LDC trade benefit after the LDC graduation in 2026, he said.
World Trade Organization (WTO) will discuss the LDC trade facilities extension issue in its next ministerial meeting in February next year, he said.
Issues such as intellectual property rights in pharmaceuticals and extension of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) for Bangladesh up to 2033 will also be discussed, he said.
The copyrights act amendment, industrial design act, patent bill and implementation regulation and IPR enforcement rules will also be discussed, he said.
Foreign direct investment of the US in Bangladesh, delays in profit repatriation and non-payment by the US companies in accordance with digital trade policies such as draft data protection act and draft regulation for digital social media and OTT platforms will be discussed, he said.
Cooperation in agriculture sector development, agricultural biotechnology dialogues, WTO customs valuation agreement and support for trade facilitation agreement issues are also in the agenda for discussion.
Brendan Lynch, acting assistant of the USTR for South and Central Asia, is expected to lead the American team in the Ticfa meeting.

Mighty dollar
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In July, the number of credit cards stood at 2.27 lakh, up from 2.01 lakh a year ago, BB data showed.
Transactions involved Tk 2,674 crore in July, an increase from Tk 2,577 crore a year ago.
Foreign currency transactions stood at Tk 769 crore in July, which was Tk 440 crore in the identical month of 2022.
Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of Mutual Trust Bank, attributed the recent spike in card transactions and users to the lower USD rate offered by credit cards than in the kerb market.
“The USD costs Tk 118 in the unofficial market whereas it is much lower in the credit card. That’s why people are using credit cards while visiting abroad amid the volatility in the forex market.”