Bangladesh left out from GSP for political reasons: Tofail

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed told the parliament today that the United States has left out Bangladesh in its generalised system of preference (GSP) for political reasons.

The minister said this while replying to a supplementary question by opposition Jatiya Party lawmaker Selim Uddin in this regard this afternoon.

Tofail said the US does not give either duty free or quota free facility to Bangladesh. Moreover, they cancelled GSP facility which they used to give earlier, he said.

“We have fulfilled all the conditions that the US gave for getting back GSP facility again. But it is sad that we have not got the GSP facility back yet,” the minister said.

The matter of giving GSP facility to Bangladesh depends entirely on the US, Tofail also said.

It would not be wise to disclose the reasons here in the parliament why the US is not giving GSP facility to Bangladesh, he said.

“But I think the reason is definitely political,” Tofail added.

Replying to a query made by another lawmaker, the minister said Bangladesh gets duty free facilities to most of the developed and developing nations in the world except the US.

Responding to another query, he said due to price hike in international market, prices of some essentials in Bangladesh have gone high recently.

The minister also said that directives have been given to all deputy commissioners and superintendents of police in all districts to take legal actions if anyone gets involved in Multi-Level Marketing business violating the existing rules.