Bangladesh hopeful of GSP amid US nonchalance
Bangladesh continues to remain hopeful of the revival of its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) status in the US market although the visiting officials of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) gave no such assurance in the fifth round of a Ticfa meeting in Dhaka yesterday.
"We strongly urged the USTR delegation for the reinstatement of the GSP to the US market as we have improved our workplace safety and labour rights a lot," said Md Jafar Uddin, secretary to the commerce ministry.
The GSP reinstatement was widely discussed at the meeting held between the USTR and Bangladesh under the Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (Ticfa) at the InterContinental hotel in Dhaka.
Ticfa was signed in November 2013 to create a platform for negotiating trade and investment between the two countries.
Bangladesh also sought financial and technical assistance to strengthen trade negotiation skills and export capacities upon graduation from least developed to a developing country, Jafar told The Daily Star after the meeting.
The Bangladesh side demanded fair prices during sale of goods, especially garment items.
Bangladesh also discussed investment, removal of trade barriers, easing market access, increasing bilateral trade, intellectual property rights, cotton issues and the digital economy.
The USTR did not talk with the media after the meeting.
The US delegation showed interest in investing in the ICT and digital economy and sought waiver of fumigation test of US cotton at the port of entry in Bangladesh, Jafar said.
"We told them that fumigation is important because of safety concerns. And they are convinced," said the secretary, who headed the Bangladesh side in the meeting.
The GSP status, a preferential tariff system which provides tariff reduction on various products, was suspended for Bangladesh following the nation's deadliest industrial accident, the collapse of Rana Plaza in 2013.
The suspension came in June that year, citing poor working conditions and a lack of labour rights in the garment sector. The apparel industry, Bangladesh's main export earner, never enjoyed GSP in the US market.
The USTR had also outlined 16 conditions to be met by Bangladesh should the country wish to reclaim the GSP status.
Improvements followed in electrical, fire safety and structural issues in factories. Labour laws were also amended to improve worker's rights as per the recommendations.
Progress reports on workplace safety were submitted to the USTR twice. However, the USTR did not reinstate GSP status for Bangladesh as the US government observed that further improvements, especially in labour rights, were required.
Currently, the US government does not provide GSP status to apparel items from any country but the duties imposed differ from nation to nation.
The total value of exports from Bangladesh to the US under the GSP was $34.7 million until it was scrapped. Beneficiaries included sectors such as tobacco, sports equipment, porcelain and plastic products.
The US is Bangladesh's single largest export destination. As a least developed country, 97 per cent of the goods originating from Bangladesh had enjoyed duty-free benefits in the US markets as per a decision taken during the Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization in 2005.
However, the country's main export item, garments, was not included in the 97 per cent package. Garment exports account for 95 per cent of Bangladesh's exports to the US.
As a result, Bangladeshi exporters face 15.62 per cent duty on the export of apparel items to the US markets.
In fiscal 2017-18, Bangladesh exported goods worth $5.98 billion to the US market while importing goods worth $1.70 billion, according to data from the commerce ministry.
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