At the second annual meeting of the Bangladesh-US Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (TICFA) held on Monday in Washington, Bangladesh has expressed that the newly formed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) may have an adverse impact on the country’s exports.

The Bangladesh embassy in Washington, in a statement, said Dhaka believed this TPP might “adversely impact” its exports to the US and some other TPP countries. The US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Vietnam, Chile, Brunei, Singapore and New Zealand are the members of the recently formed TPP. However, US Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission David Meale had earlier said before the TICFA meeting that if “Bangladesh decides it is willing to meet the overall TPP standards, it might one day wish to signal interest in joining”.

Commerce Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon led the Bangladesh side while Assistant US Trade Representative Michel Delany headed his side in the TICFA meeting. They discussed issues including progress on workers’ rights, Sustainability Compact and GSP Action Plan, investment climate in Bangladesh, transformation of Bangladesh, market access and responsible business conduct. The meeting also deliberated on the Istanbul programme of action, Bali package implementation, fair pricing, TPP, blue economy, and infrastructure, among other things.

Bangladesh presented the progress it had made in workers’ rights, and factory safety norms. It also urged the US to grant duty- and quota-free market access to its products as per Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration and Bali package, adopted in Bali WTO Ministerial.

Ustr.gov

Mincom.gov.bd