Alternative Bilateral Trade Forum
US mulling Dhaka's proposal
The United States is analysing Bangladesh's proposal for an alternative bilateral forum to boost trade and investment between the two countries, said a visiting US official yesterday.
“The Bangladesh government has proposed a trade and investment forum arrangement. We are considering the feasibility of the idea,” said Michael J Delaney, assistant US trade representative for South Asia.
He, however, declined to give any possible timeframe for the implementation of the US-Bangladesh Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum.
Delaney was speaking to newsmen after a meeting with Commerce Minister Faruk Khan at the latter's secretariat office in Dhaka.
The US official said their talks focused on the trade and investment and improvement of bilateral relations. The issue of stalled Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) also came up in the discussion.
“We have discussed a range of issues including strengthening further the bilateral economic relations and increasing trade and investment between the two countries,” he said, adding that the proposed TIFA could be one of the ways to boost trade and investment.
The US official said his country has no immediate plan to bring any change to the tariff rates levied on Bangladesh.
Bangladesh pays $ 50 crore as duty against its exports of $ 400 crore to the US, while France pays much lesser amount despite exporting goods and services worth $ 3,000 crore to the world's biggest economy.
Delaney said the discussion on the slow-progressing Doha Development Round of World Trade Organisation will not complete before 2012, when the duty structure issue could be finally settled.
“The deadline is approaching, but we remain committed towards a successful, ambitious and balanced outcome in the Doha Round,” he said.
In 2002, The USA showed interest to sign the much-talked TIFA with Bangladesh in efforts to boost up bilateral trade and investment relations. A year later, the two sides started dialogues.
Officials of the two countries sat for the second time in 2004, when Washington had said agreement could be signed within three months.
But nothing happened although the draft had been prepared twice, officials said, partly due to slow process on Bangladesh's part, which paved the way for the concept of alternative economic arrangement.
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