US investors urged to create Covid-19 vaccine plants in Bangladesh

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Bangladesh has urged US investors to create Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing plants in Bangladesh to make sure its availability at less expensive for people of the united states.

An inter-session meeting of Bangladesh and USA in the Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (TICFA) happened today where this demand was made. That is an inter-session meeting between your fifth and sixth rounds of TICFA meeting.

The fifth round happened in Dhaka in March this season.

"We need a large amount of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for our country's development. US companies will be the most significant investors in Bangladesh mainly in power and energy sectors. We sought US investment in the pharmaceutical sector as this industry has been thriving in the country rapidly," said Commerce Secretary Md Jafar Uddin who led the Bangladesh side in the virtual meeting.

Christopher Wilson, assistant US Trade Representative (USTR) for South and Central Asia, led the US side in the meeting.

"Setting up vaccine manufacturing plants in Bangladesh by US investors could possibly be a timely decision since the demand for vaccine is quite high now," Jafar Uddin said after the meeting.

"We've also urged for US investment in non-covid pharmaceuticals industries," he said.

"We told the united states to purchase contract manufacturing of medicine so that they can produce here and export from this country," the commerce secretary also said.

Investment in pharmaceuticals sector in Bangladesh could be lucrative to foreign investors as the country is eligible for manufacturing patent drugs cheaply until January 1, 2033 according to your choice of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) under the Trade - Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement.

Riding on the waiver of the compliance of the TRIPS agreement of WTO, the local pharmaceuticals industries thrived a whole lot and also have been meeting 98 percent domestic demand. Many local pharmaceuticals industries have already been exporting medicine to nearly 150 countries including USA, Canada, UK and the EU countries after meeting the local demand.

In the fiscal 2019-20, Bangladesh exported pharmaceuticals products worth $136 million, registering 4.49 percent year-on-year growth, according to data from Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).

Bangladesh also demanded relocation folks companies currently running far away, citing preferential trade privilege and competitive production costs in Bangladesh in comparison to other countries.

Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) in a virtual presentation also showed the country's strive in launching One Stop Service (OSS) centre to facilitate both local and international businesses.

The commerce secretary also said he raised the issue of reinstatement of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) for Bangladesh to the US market to take pleasure from zero-duty benefit on export of some locally produced goods like dry fish, tobacco and ceramics.

Before suspension of the GSP status, Bangladesh used to export products worth $24 million under the GSP facility.

The US government suspended GSP for Bangladesh in June 2013, citing poor labour rights and working conditions, after the nation's deadliest professional accident -- Rana Plaza collapse -- in April 2013 that left some 1,138 employees dead and 2,500 staff severely injured.

Following the suspension of the GSP, the then US government also gave 16 conditions to be fulfilled by the federal government and private sector of Bangladesh for the reinstatement of GSP status to the united states markets.

Bangladesh has fulfilled the 16 conditions mainly associated with improving labour rights, workplace safety, inspection and remediation of the garment factory buildings by Accord and Alliance.

After fulfillment of the conditions, Bangladesh applied twice to america Trade Representative (USTR), America's principal trade negotiation body, for reviewing and reinstatement of the GSP status for Bangladesh.

However, the USTR is yet to reinstate Bangladesh's GSP status saying that a lot should be improved in the regions of labour rights.

"We are hopeful that the US will consider reinstatement of the GSP status to Bangladesh as we have already fulfilled US' conditions," said Jafar Uddin.

The commerce secretary further said Bangladesh also suggested duty-free export of locally made garment items, although US never gives zero duty benefit to any country for garment items, except some African countries beneath the African Growth and Opportunity Act on garment import.

Jafar Uddin asked the US delegation to permit zero duty benefit to Bangladesh if the apparels are made of the cotton imported from US. "We are able to demand for duty-free facility on garment made from US cotton as we import a lot of American cotton in Bangladesh," he said.

The US delegation in the meeting demanded withdrawal of fumigation on import folks cotton as the import of, especially, the upland cotton has been increasing in Bangladesh recently.

THE UNITED STATES cotton faces double fumigation in Bangladesh mainly to avoid the attack of bollworm in the cotton. The double fumigation on US cotton in the ports was introduced by the then Ayub Khan-led government of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, on a complaint of attack by the insects and within an excuse of higher production of cotton.

TICFA was signed in November 2013 to produce a platform for negotiating trade and investment between your two countries.

THE UNITED STATES is Bangladesh's single largest export destination. As a least developed country, 97 percent of the products originating from Bangladesh had enjoyed duty-free benefits in the US markets according to a decision taken during the Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization in 2005.

However, the country's main export item, garments, was not contained in the 97 percent package. Garment exports take into account 95 percent of Bangladesh's exports to the US.

Subsequently, Bangladeshi exporters face 15.62 percent duty on the export of apparel items to the US markets.

In the fiscal 2019-20, Bangladesh exported goods worth $6.04 billion to the united states market and imported goods worth $2.58 billion from US.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net

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