Maiden Ticfa meeting to focus labour rights, GSP issues

bdnews24.com :
The first council meeting of Ticfa will be held on April 7- 8 in Dhaka.
The date has been confirmed during a joint meeting involving foreign secretary Md Shahidul Haque and the officials of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Department of Labour and the Bureau of International Labour Affairs in Washington on Tuesday.
Earlier Bangladesh’s Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed had said the meeting would be held in April, but he did not specify dates.
Bangladesh entered into the Trade and Investment Co-operation Forum Agreement (Ticfa) with the US in November last year, floating a forum for bilateral talks on labour and trade issues.
The meeting is scheduled at the end of the deadline for fulfilling an US action plan on labour rights and security, failing which Bangladesh’s GSP facility in the US market will not be restored.
According to the foreign ministry, the foreign secretary briefed the US officials on the progress Bangladesh has so far made on workers rights and safety in the textile sector.
He also exchanged views on the potential of strengthening trade and investment relations between the two countries.
The foreign ministry said that the US has appreciated the actions the government had taken in addressing workers’ rights and safety issue and hoped that “the process would continue with same vigour”.
The foreign secretary led a Bangladesh team to Washington to attend the global fund meeting on counter terrorism.
On Tuesday, he also met senior US State Department officials including Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Nisha Desai Biswal.
Bangladesh’s Ambassador to United States Akramul Qader, Deputy Chief of Mission Muhammad Abdul Muhith, and foreign ministry’s Director General (Americas) Md. Mahfuzur Rahman accompanied the Foreign Secretary.
The Foreign Secretary also had meetings with Senior Advisor for Myanmar Judith Cefkin who recently visited Bangladesh and Burma, apart from meeting labour officials.
According to the foreign ministry, during the meetings the US side confirmed that the third round Bangladesh-US security dialogue would be held on Apr 16.
The dialogue will take place in Dhaka as the last one was held in Washington.
The 3rd US-Bangladesh Partnership Dialogue will be held in Washington in mid-June.