Dhaka sits on new TIFA draft today

The commerce ministry today holds an inter-ministerial meeting on Bangladesh’s position on the fresh Trade and Investment Framework Agreement draft into which the US authorities have incorporated issues of protection of intellectual property rights, workers rights and environment concerns.
Experts have, meanwhile, feared that the issues incorporated into the new draft might jeopardize Dhaka’s interest if the agreement is implemented.
The priorities Washington incorporated into the new TIFA draft were not there in the draft earlier negotiated and put into a final form at the third-round negotiation between Dhaka and Washington in February 2005.
Formation of a joint working group under the proposed US-Bangladesh Council on Trade and Investment has been dropped off the new draft which has also undermined Dhaka’s interest in eliminating non-tariff trade barriers.
The new draft sent by US authorities concerned to the Bangladesh commerce ministry for consideration includes clauses on labour, intellectual property rights and environment issues which on agreement of both the parties were removed from the final draft negotiated in 2005, sources in the commerce ministry said.
The fresh proposal undermines the urgency of Bangladesh’s interest in eliminating non-tariff barriers, often faced by Bangladeshi exporters to the US market in the name of labour standards, working conditions, wages and labour rights, sources said.
Trade experts said the incorporation of labour issues into the draft would enable the United States to impose sanctions on Bangladeshi exports to its market. They referred to Bangladesh’s ongoing dilemma over how to allow trade unionism in the export processing zones.
A trade diplomat said the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement under the World Trade Organisation was not favourable at all for least developed countries.
‘If the TRIPS issue is incorporated into the bilateral TIFA, it will only favour the United States and may create serious problems for Bangladesh in future,’ a trade expert told New Age.
The prime objective of the United States in forging TIFA is to protect the interest of US companies in the energy sector and it would create new problems in Bangladesh’s readymade garment and pharmaceutical industries and export front, the expert said.
The new draft has proposed the inclusion of representatives of both the private sector and civil society in the US-Bangladesh Council on Trade and Investment. The earlier draft had representatives only of the private sector.
Issues such as elimination of corruption and bribery have also been included in the new draft.
On June 1, US trade representative Robert B Zoellick signed TIFA deal with five Central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — promising them better trade and investment facilities.
In Bangladesh, TIFA was met with both hopes for a better trade future and fears of strict compliance with labour and workplace standards that may hamper usual exports.
A high commerce ministry official said they would hold an inter-ministerial meeting today to finalise Bangladesh’s position on the proposed text of TIFA.
He, however, declined to make any comments on controversial issues of the proposed agreement, saying higher authorities will decide on signing TIFA with the United States.
On corruption and bribery issue, he said the law ministry earlier endorsed the inclusion of the controversial words.
The United States is the single largest export destination of Bangladesh with an annual export earning of about $3.5 billion or about 40 per cent of the Bangladesh’s total annual export.