Bangladesh seeks fair trade deal with US

UsaNewsOnline.Com, Washington D.C :  Bangladesh Ambassador to the United States Mohammad Ziauddin met with Congressman George Holding in Washington D.C. Tuesday and discussed issues of mutual interest including women empowerment, counter terrorism and duty free quota free (DFQF) market access. The Republican Congressman from North Carolina, Mr. George Holding is a member on the House Ways & Means Sub-Committee on Trade. The Ambassador briefed him about the sense of discrimination that 14 countries out of 48 LDCs feel that they are not getting the DFQF access to US market unlike the other 34 Least Developed Countries that are enjoying such trade benefits. The Ambassador insisted that like the European Union, the USA should also provide DFQF access to all the LDCs on the basis of justice and fairness. The Ambassador also briefed the Congressman on women empowerment in Bangladesh. He said that women are currently holding important positions in the government. The Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in parliament, the Speaker, Deputy Leader of the House and five cabinet ministers are women. Furthermore, there are 70 women MPS in the 350-member Parliament, which means 20% elected representatives are women. In the RMG sector, 90 percent or more than four million workers are women who are contributing to society by alleviating poverty, minimizing child labour and containing extremism. Therefore, the Ambassador observed the DFQF facility will help boost volume of bilateral trade and thereby enable Bangladesh to pull out of vicious cycle of poverty and extremism by using its own resources. Ambassador Ziauddin also mentioned about Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s zero tolerance on terrorism and all forms of extremism. He praised the current cooperation between Bangladesh and UAS in countering terrorism by sharing information and other capacity building measures. Congressman Holding thanked the Ambassador for the meeting. He showed his interest to visit Bangladesh in near future when he will visit India. Mr. Toufique Hasan, Minister (Political) of the Embassy and Mr. Kris Denzel, Legislative Director of Congressman Holding were present in the meeting.