The United States has urged Bangladesh to amend the Bangladesh Labour Act by November this year in line with the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) recommendations, to ensure workers’ safety, benefits and rights.
A visiting US Trade Representative (USTR) delegation during a meeting in Dhaka on Wednesday also urged the government to decrease the threshold of workers’ consent in forming trade unions at factories.
Currently, at least 20 per cent of workers’ consent is needed for the formation of such unions at the factories in Bangladesh. The European Union has called for bringing this down to 10 per cent.
During the seventh meeting of the US-Bangladesh Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (Ticfa) Council at InterContinental Dhaka, the USTR delegation also enquired about the progress of the labour law amendments and the steps taken by the government to ensure justice for the murdered labour leader Shahidul Islam.
They said that working with trading partners to support workers’ rights, including freedom of association and collective bargaining, is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration, and emphasised the importance of combating violence against workers and union organisers, as well as anti-union discrimination and other unfair labour practices.
The Ticfa meeting was co-chaired by the commerce ministry’s Senior Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh and Brendan Lynch, acting assistant USTR for South and Central Asia. The two delegations included officials from trade, labour, agriculture, and other relevant ministries and agencies.
At the meeting, Bangladesh again sought duty-free access to the American market and simplification of the registration process for pharmaceutical products.
Bangladesh also urged the US to impose tax only on the value addition of RMG products made of US cotton instead of Free On Board prices.
The USTR delegation assured that they will consider allowing duty-free market access to some apparel items from Bangladesh made from cotton imported from the US. Tapan also echoed the same after the meeting.
He said that all developed and developing countries provide duty-free trade benefits to Bangladesh, but the US is an exception. “That’s why we have sought duty-free facilities for all types of products we currently export to the US market. On the other hand, the US has urged us to amend the labour law and improve intellectual property laws to international standards.”
Tapan said US investment in Bangladesh, especially in the industrial sector, and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) providing facilities in Bangladesh were also discussed during the meeting.
The USTR representatives said that the conditions for GSP will have to be fulfilled to become a member of DFC. Bangladesh has made progress in this regard.
Wide range of issues
During the meeting, both countries discussed a wide range of issues impacting the bilateral trade relationship, including preferential market access, pharmaceutical products registration, labour rights, technical assistance, intellectual property protection, investment climate, digital trade, agricultural trade, and customs and trade facilitation.
The US delegation noted that a tripartite labour law review committee is reviewing the amendments to the Bangladesh Labour Act and encouraged Bangladesh to extend freedom of association and collective bargaining to the Special Economic Zones and the Export Processing Zones.
It recognised that Bangladesh had undertaken some efforts to address hurdles workers face when registering unions, and stressed the importance of ensuring a simplified and impartial trade union registration process that allows for applications to be registered within the legal timeframe.
Additionally, the US urged Bangladesh to dedicate more resources to labour inspections and enforcement and appreciated the consistent dialogue over the past year on the Data Protection Act.
The US applauded Bangladesh’s actions to remove cotton fumigation requirements on US cotton exports, a long-standing issue that had persisted for over twenty years.
Both countries cooperated on agricultural biotechnology dialogue and look forward to deepening their engagement this year. They also recognised the importance of the protection and enforcement of intellectual property (IP) for protecting innovation across economies.
The US reiterated its interest in engaging with Bangladesh on ongoing processes for amendments to IP-related laws and regulations, including the Copyright Act Amendments, Industrial Designs Act, Patent Bill, and Implementing Regulations and IPR Enforcement (Import and Export) Rules.
The US also discussed actions needed to address concerns with Bangladesh’s ranking as one of the top five source economies for counterfeit clothing globally, as noted in USTR’s 2023 Special 301 Report.
Both delegations planned to continue dialogue on these important bilateral trade issues before the next Ticfa Council Meeting, which will be held in Washington, DC in 2024.
The two countries stressed the importance of their strong economic and trade relationship, which surpassed $10 billion in two-way trade in goods in 2021. Bangladesh’s exports to the US declined by 6.88 per cent year-on-year to $9.70 billion in FY2022-23. It was $10.42 billion in FY2021-22.
Bangladesh and the US formally engaged on trade issues since the US-Bangladesh Ticfa came into effect in 2013. In December last year, the sixth round of the Ticfa meeting was held in Washington, DC. Before that, the fifth Ticfa meeting was held in Dhaka on March 5, 2020.
