The world’s biggest economies support Bangladesh's joining plurilateral trade agreements now in the offing.
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“Participation in plurilateral agreements is a way to pursue trade enhancing policies and support domestic reform,” EU ambassador in Dhaka Pierre Mayaudon has said.
“It can also play an essential role in attracting investment and plugging into global supply chains,” he told a seminar at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) on the plurilateral trade.
Chargé d'affaires of the US embassy David Meale and Chinese embassy’s deputy chief Qu Guangzhou also favoured the arrangement.
The seminar comes close on the heels of ongoing global negotiations for plurilateral trade agreements that are a wee bit different from the more well-known multilateral agreements.
Plurilateral suggests an agreement among more than two countries, but not too many, which would make it multilateral.
Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), Environmental Goods Agreement, Trade in Services Agreement, and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) are some of the ongoing negotiations.
Speaking at the seminar, ABM Mirza Azizul Islam, former finance adviser to a caretaker government, said plurilateral trade agreements were the outcome of a growing “frustration” with the WTO but were unlikely to replace it.
He suggested studies on how Bangladesh could benefit by joining these agreements.
Deputy Chief of Party of the USAID Bangladesh Trade Facilitation Activity Khairuzzaman Mojumdar said Bangladesh needed expertise to deal with plurilateral agreements.
He said it must understand the “complexity” of those agreements, if not join them.
The EU ambassador appreciated the plurilateral system, for he believed it could benefit a country just like the multilateral trading system.
He said joining the plurilateral system would give “a very powerful message to the international business community that a country is committed to being part of the global market and international rules”.
The envoy said even joining the WTO Information Technology Agreement (ITA) could bring benefits to Bangladesh by attracting investment, increasing competitiveness and promoting regional integration.
He said international trade agreements at the multilateral and plurilateral levels could play an important role in Bangladesh’s future economic development.
Chargé d'affaires of the US embassy Meale said TPP, which the US was trying to achieve with the Pacific Rim countries, would be “a high-standard” trade agreement.
He said it would “break new grounds”.
He said the TPP would address trade issues with common standards and fair and just trade on level playing fields.
“In doing so, we underscore common values that include the rights of workers, environmental issues, transparency and regulatory issues, laws against bribery and intellectual property laws,” he said.
He said, with Bangladesh, the labour issue was “a very big part” for the US.
Chinese embassy’s deputy chief Qu Guangzhou said China was the largest trading country in the world last year, with a trade volume of nearly $4 trillion.
He said currently they were the biggest trading partner of 128 countries.
“We are the supporter and beneficiary of the multilateral trade arrangements,” he said.
He added China would also support plurilateral arrangements, and highlighted its ‘one belt, one road’ initiative and the BCIM cooperation with Bangladesh, India and Myanmar.