EU, Bangladesh trade partnership at a crossroad, says an envoy

The EU-Bangladesh ties are moving from a “supplier-buyer relation to a comprehensive and more balanced partnership driven by trade and investment”, says its envoy.

“The trade partnership is at a crossroad,” Charge d’Affaires of the EU delegation in Dhaka Frederic Maduraud said on Thursday.

He said innovation, capacity building, competitiveness and sustainability would stem from massive foreign direct investment in Bangladesh “on a much more important scale than our Development Cooperation aid could ever achieve”.

He said the FDI would be the driver for change in Bangladesh to shift further up its growth model, achieve middle-income country status by 2021, and further integrate into the world economy.

Maduraud was speaking at a global social responsibility conference on Thursday.

The Bangladesh German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BGCCI) organised the conference, fourth of its kind, focussing issues like regional connectivity, social and environmental sustainability and personal initiatives.

Commerce Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon inaugurated the conference themed on “Aid to Trade: Better World Safer Generation”.

The charge d’affaires said the theme “could not better summarise what the EU is doing both globally and locally in Bangladesh”.

The EU is the largest market of Bangladesh’s exports where all products except arms enjoy duty-free access.

After the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013 that killed over 1,100 people, the EU did not suspend the GSP privilege. Rather, it rolled out action plans known as “sustainability compact” as part of its “responsibility” to avoid unintended consequences.

“Should we have decided after the Rana Plaza disaster to cancel the benefit of the GSP for Bangladesh, the effect would have taken a major economic toll on the workers - most of them being female - dependent on garment jobs,” Maduraud said.

He said the disaster had acted as “a catalyst as never before” to raising awareness amongst governments, the brands, factory owners, workers and consumers that “both production and consumption should be sustainable”.

The EU diplomat “personally considers that Bangladesh has been a world laboratory for sustainability in the last past two years”.

“It is important to credit Bangladesh for the progress made on the long and complex road towards Global Social Responsibility even though much remains to be done.

“My belief is that what has been achieved since the Rana Plaza disaster is already a success story for which the government of Bangladesh and industry should claim more ownership,” he continued.

But there is “indeed no way out, or no way back to sustainability and responsibility in our globalized word to remain competitive,” he observed.

The commerce secretary thanked development partners for their post-Rana Plaza support.