DHAKA, Aug 7: Bangladesh and the United States on Thursday agreed, in principle, to sign a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), although they are yet to sort out a few major differences.

“The US and Bangladesh negotiators agreed on striking the deal to discuss trade and investment-related issues under a broader framework,” Commerce Secretary Suhel Ahmed told newsmen after the official talks on TIFA with US representative Ashley Wills here.

Bangladesh side hammered on two critical issues — duty and quota-free access of Bangladeshi goods to the US market and movement of natural persons — to incorporate as agenda in the future negotiation under the proposed TIFA, meeting sources said.

Contrarily, the American envoy was insisting on Bangladesh’s support to Washington’s stance in the upcoming talks of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the sources added.

“We’re close to an agreement. I will take it (talks’ outcome) to Washington to check back and we’ve to sort out a couple of minor issues,” Ashley Wills, US Assistant Trade Representative, told newsmen after his talks with the Commerce Secretary.

The two officials held detailed discussions on two drafts on TIFA prepared by Dhaka and Washington, following the US offered Bangladesh the TIFA for trade talks under a broader perspective.

The US negotiator preferred terming the differences to be “minor” and limited to “phrases” only, which he would check whether the issues, especially Dhaka’s points, conform Amerian interests protected by its laws.

Wills also foresaw a timetable of a few weeks after the Cancun ministerial meeting of the WTO (in September), for signing of the TIFA. If signed, it will be the United States’ third of such bilateral agreement in the region after Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

However, Wills later met Commerce Minister Amir Khashru Mahmud Chowdhury.

When asked about a timeframe for signing the TIFA, the Bangladesh commerce minister said it would not be a problem, should the “matters of Bangladesh’s interests” be addressed by this time.

The minister said that Dhaka expected American cooperation in the development of two potentials sectors — information and communications technology (ICT) and light engineering.