Joint business council with EU soon

Bangladesh and the European Union will form a joint business council soon to boost trade between the two partners, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said yesterday.

“We will form the joint business council very soon. The Netherlands will hold a seminar on EU-Bangladesh very soon in Dhaka,” Ahmed told reporters after a meeting with a high-powered parliamentary delegation of the EU, at his secretariat office in Dhaka.

Representatives from the private sector will be incorporated in the Bangladesh-EU council to take business ties between the two partners to a new height.

The minister briefed the delegation on the progress made by Bangladesh for safer working environment at the factory level under the Sustainability Compact.

After the Rana Plaza building collapse, Bangladesh signed the International Labour Organisation-brokered Sustainability Compact with the EU in 2013, committing to responsible business behaviour. Later, the US and Canada joined the deal.

So far, two follow-up meetings of the Sustainability Compact were held to review the progresses of workplace safety and labour rights.

Bangladesh has fulfilled almost all the conditions put in the Compact and the EU delegation is also satisfied with the progresses, according to Ahmed.

The three agencies -- Accord, Alliance and the National Action Plan -- have completed inspections of 3,800 factories for deficiencies in structural, electrical and fire safety, Ahmed said.

Of the total, 1,356 were inspected by the Accord, a platform of 200 European retailers; 829 by the Alliance, another inspection agency of 27 North American retailers; and 1,549 by the NAP, an initiative of the ILO and the government.

During the inspection, only 37 factories were closed down and 40 partially, after structural flaws were found in them.

“More than 98 percent of the factories are safe,” Ahmed said.

Currently, many green garment factories are being built, which is a good sign of the safer working environment in Bangladesh. More than 70 green garment factories are also coming into production soon, Ahmed said.

At present, the number of green garment factories is about 20.

The minister also invited business people from the EU to invest in the special economic zones, as the government has been building 100 such special zones both for domestic and foreign investors.

The EU delegation assured that they will continue the zero-duty benefit for Bangladesh even after the country's graduation from least-developed country status by the end of 2021, according to Ahmed.

The zero-duty benefit will come under the GSP Plus scheme, which is given to a developing country with some conditions like ratification of four vital international conventions, including human rights, environment, workers' right and governance.

The EU-28 is the largest trading partner for Bangla-desh. In fiscal 2014-15, Bangladesh's export to the EU stood at $17.04 billion, of which 90 percent were garment items.

In fiscal 2013-14, exports to the EU raked in $16.40 billion, according to data from the commerce ministry.

Beside garment, Bangladesh also exports leather goods, jute goods and bicycle to the EU.

“We have discussed the workers' representation in trade unions at the factory level. We have discussed how to use the highest possible standards in the workplace,” Jean Lambert, member of the European Parliament and the head of the delegation, said at the press briefing.

“We will discuss different trade issues like tariffs in trade regularly after formation of the EU-Bangladesh business council. We are working for formation of this very important business measure for increasing the bilateral trade.”