Bangladesh`s trade officials said Washington had proposed the agreement a few years ago, but Dhaka opposed the signing of the agreement because it feared it would lead to a review of the country`s poor intellectual property and labor rights. But according to the Census Bureau, our trade deficit with Mexico was $102 billion through 2019 and $27 billion with Canada. According to a report by the non-profit consumer protection group Public Citizen, the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program shows that 845,000 manufacturing workers lost their jobs and asked for help because of NAFTA Ambassador Akramul Qader of Bangladesh, calling the agreement “opening a new chapter” in relations between the two nations and helping Dhaka regain trade privileges in the United States. However, the suspension of GSP by the United States is not very unusual. The GSP was introduced by the United States in 1976 and subsequently underwent a number of modifications. A number of GSP countries have faced suspension or termination of the benefit for a variety of reasons. Last October, for example, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced the suspension of about $1.30 billion in trade preferences for Thailand under the GSP, due to the “failure to adequately guarantee the rights of internationally recognized workers.” The suspension will take effect from April this year and will cover about one third of the Thai GSP trade. Bangladesh has experienced impressive economic growth for decades, with forecasts for 2019, annual GDP growth of 8%.

The United States is proud to be a partner in Bangladesh`s development success. Its enviable growth and openness to U.S. private sector investment make this market an exceptional opportunity for U.S. companies and those of our allies. Bangladesh exported $5.5 billion worth of products. , mainly clothing and textiles, U.S. exports to Bangladesh, which consisted mainly of agricultural products (cereals and cotton) and machinery, amounted to $2.1 billion in 2018, 43% more than the previous year, resulting in a U.S. trade deficit of $4 billion. At the end of 2017, the United States accounted for 23% of the FDI stock in Bangladesh. Chevron is the largest foreign investor and produces about 55 percent of Bangladesh`s national natural gas. U.S. companies are the largest foreign investors in Bangladesh, with investments of $3.4 billion starting in 2018, representing 20 percent of Di`s total stock of shares in Bangladesh.

Banking, insurance and energy production sectors. Bourdreaux theorized that a growing trade deficit is actually positive, reflecting investor confidence. If a U.S. trading partner artificially oppresses its currency, the U.S. could see a larger deficit, “but this practice harms the trading partner, not the United States.” The United States suspended duty-free access to some Bangladeshi products in June after the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory, which killed 1,135 people. The United States is the largest export market for Bangladesh. The United States is also one of the largest sources of foreign direct investment in Bangladesh. The largest U.S. investment in the country is Chevron, which produces 50% of Bangladesh`s natural gas. [21] Bilateral trade amounted to $6 billion in 2014.