Dhaka will seek funds from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and trade privileges, while Washington would want labour reforms and personal data protection during the intercessional meeting of the US-Bangladesh Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (TICFA) Council on April 22.

Brendan Lynch, assistant US trade representative for South and Central Asia, will lead a delegation for the meeting with Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh in Dhaka. Lynch is scheduled to arrive tomorrow for a two-day visit.

"This is a follow-up meeting of TICFA that was held in September last year," said a foreign ministry official.

The issues discussed in the last TICFA meeting will be reviewed and both sides will talk about their positions during the meeting, he said.

"We have been seeking funds under the US DFC for a long time. We will reiterate the demand," the official said, adding that Bangladesh will ask for duty-free access for the products made of US cotton.

"We need more investments and we will continue to call for this," he said.

Bangladesh's top single export market is the US.

Bangladesh exported products worth nearly $12 billion last year and imported goods from the US worth about $2 billion, according to the Export Promotion Bureau, Bangladesh.

The US is also the largest foreign direct investor in Bangladesh.

However, labour reforms, intellectual property rights, personal data protection, corruption and legal complexities have been some of the issues that Washington repeatedly asked Bangladesh to address.

Earlier, Washington said it would not provide funding to Bangladesh if the country does not improve its labour situation, including the trade union rights, checking unfair labour practices, and wage increase.

Bangladesh said the government has recently amended the labour law and continues dialogue among all parties for further reforms.

"We also need to understand the ground reality as we reform laws," said another official.