The fifth meeting of the Nepal-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Council is scheduled for December 12 in Kathmandu.
The meeting expected to take forward the issues of bilateral trade that have been under discussion was supposed to take in June in Kathmandu, but the US postponed the meeting showing dissatisfaction on Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act brought hastily before Nepal Investment Summit 2019.
“The US expressed dissatisfaction on the government move for not considering their involvement while drafting the act,” informed a source at the Industry Ministry. “The US has long been expressing its concern over the investment environment in Nepal to inject capital from American investors,” he said, adding that the US did not even reply to several letters forwarded by the ministry to fix the date for TIFA meeting.
Nepal signed the TIFA with the USA on April 16, 2011. Under the provision, the two countries had agreed to hold the TIFA council meeting every year. The last meeting was held in the US on November 13, 2018. Now, the meeting will be held in Kathmandu, according to the agreement.
Nepal has been repeatedly asking the US to revise the lists of goods under duty free access that the US has been providing to Nepal. The US has been providing duty-free access to 77 Nepali products including certain carpets and pashmina, headgear, shawls, scarves and travel items – through its Trade Preferences Act (TPA) in 2015 – that have high potential in the US market until 2025.
One of the products that Nepal has been demanding duty-free access with the US is readymade garments. The US used to be the largest buyer of Nepali readymade garments till 2000. But the export dropped from $171.39 million in 2003 – after the US government stopped providing duty-free, quota-free market access to Nepali products – to Rs 4.18 billion in the last fiscal year.
The meeting expected to take forward the issues of bilateral trade that have been under discussion was supposed to take in June in Kathmandu, but the US postponed the meeting showing dissatisfaction on Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act brought hastily before Nepal Investment Summit 2019.
“The US expressed dissatisfaction on the government move for not considering their involvement while drafting the act,” informed a source at the Industry Ministry. “The US has long been expressing its concern over the investment environment in Nepal to inject capital from American investors,” he said, adding that the US did not even reply to several letters forwarded by the ministry to fix the date for TIFA meeting.
Nepal signed the TIFA with the USA on April 16, 2011. Under the provision, the two countries had agreed to hold the TIFA council meeting every year. The last meeting was held in the US on November 13, 2018. Now, the meeting will be held in Kathmandu, according to the agreement.
Nepal has been repeatedly asking the US to revise the lists of goods under duty free access that the US has been providing to Nepal. The US has been providing duty-free access to 77 Nepali products including certain carpets and pashmina, headgear, shawls, scarves and travel items – through its Trade Preferences Act (TPA) in 2015 – that have high potential in the US market until 2025.
One of the products that Nepal has been demanding duty-free access with the US is readymade garments. The US used to be the largest buyer of Nepali readymade garments till 2000. But the export dropped from $171.39 million in 2003 – after the US government stopped providing duty-free, quota-free market access to Nepali products – to Rs 4.18 billion in the last fiscal year.
Nice Post... Godrej Nirvaan
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