Hardly ten months into its five-year tenure as the party in government, Awami League is known to be already working on the modus operandi for reaching some important bilateral agreements - especially those on trade and transit - which its critics find as reason enough for insinuating that prior to the last general election Awami League had struck an underhand deal, as a means of coming to power, with some foreign powers to serve their interests in exchange and that the present move by the government comes as part of its commitment to the foreign benefactors getting fulfilled. Ironically it is this inexplicable extra-sensory ability of the detractors to smell a rat, when there is no sign of any such villainous rodent being present anywhere near the olfactory perimeter, that seriously undercuts whatever arguments there may be against joining Asian Highway or, for that matter, signing Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA). Suspecting ulterior motives of India and America in everything that these two countries suggest or propose to Bangladesh characterizes the cramped mindset of a very negligible minority of politicians and intellectuals in Bangladesh who like Joseph Conrad's butterfly types would fly away for their own safety at the first opportune moment if their nation were ever to face any stormy situation threatening its survival. In its true spirit, a bilateral agreement particularly that on trade is essentially one that is aimed at benefiting both the parties in question irrespective of their political, financial or military status and therefore to assume that such an agreement is unilaterally motivated and designed to dupe the other party is untenable. That said there always is room for skilful negotiations leading up to the signing of an agreement. Bangladesh signed a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) with the US in 1986, which came into effect in 1989, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country picking up as a result. However, FDI's as such are not always an unmixed blessing, the Tangratila gas blow-out being a glaring example of a disastrous side-effect of an FDI project carried out by an inefficient and irresponsible foreign company. In retrospect, the then Bangladeshi negotiators should have taken into consideration environmental issues before signing the BIT. In essence, TIFA is no more and no less than a normal bilateral agreement designed to promote trade and investment for increased economic growth, the framework of rules incorporating among other provisions those for safeguards against discrimination against foreign investors and expropriation of investments, for compensation for expropriation and for arbitration. Already 33 countries are known to have signed TIFA, Lebanon being the latest to appear on the list of the signatories. But the sheer number of countries signing the agreement itself is no justification for Bangladesh to sign a TIFA. Intellectual Property Rights, labour and environment are some of the issues raised by the draft proposal that are perceived as a formidable threat to the country's business interests, especially to the burgeoning pharmaceuticals industry. Bangladesh can sign a TIFA only when there is a full guarantee that the country will gain something and lose nothing in return.