INSIGHTS
- According to Charles Whiteley, the EU ambassador to Bangladesh, Bangladesh must abide by 32 international treaties in order to use the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) facilities until 2029.
- Negotiations for a collaboration and cooperation agreement encompassing topics including trade, climate change, and energy will get underway on both sides this year.
According to Charles Whiteley, the ambassador of the European Union (EU) to Bangladesh, Bangladesh must adhere to 32 international treaties in order to use the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) facilities through the year 2029.
He stated during a news conference that the ratification and implementation of the treaties on environmental, labor, and human rights standards are of utmost importance. The envoys of Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, and Spain were also present.
“We’re also working on new-generation agreement discussions, which we’ll start this year. Therefore, what we refer to as a partnership and collaboration agreement, or PCA,” Whiteley was cited as saying by local media.
“This new agreement will cover all sorts of policy areas, from climate change, energy, cybersecurity, and maritime science and technology to trade, and if you’re interested in seeing an example of how comprehensive those agreements are,” he added.
The term “development partners” is no longer used to describe us. We have foreign partners, and the Global Gateway programme is one of the current aid vehicles for that relationship, he added.
“And I’m very happy that here in Bangladesh, we will have an important initiative on the National Gates as a Global Gateway, as you probably know, is designed to support infrastructure that is provided around the world,” the official continued.
In order to determine if it would be feasible to deploy election observers to Bangladesh, an exploratory mission from the EU is scheduled to land there in July.
By-Mansi Suryawanshi
