US garment bill and our interests
The New Nation, Bangladesh
A NEW bill that will be soon proposed in the US House of Representatives, seeking extension of the US Generalised System of Preference (GSP) and allowing duty-free import of garments from all least developed countries, will not have the same benefits for Bangladesh that will be enjoyed by other LDC countries. According to newspaper reports, the bill tentatively titled the New Partnership for Development Act, and currently being developed by the Ways and Means Committee’s member Jim McDermott, also proposes that GSP programme should extend indefinitely beyond its scheduled expiration after December 2014. The proposed bill especially offers duty-free GSP eligibility to apparel, and possibly footwear from all least developed countries. Currently such tariff preferences are limited to African and Andean countries under the African Growth and Opportunity Act and Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act.
As reported by quoting one of the BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association) senior leaders, ‘some clauses’ in the proposed bill will make certain things ‘difficult’ for Bangladesh. But knowledgeable sources were quoted by the report as saying although the proposed bill brightens the possibility of duty-free access of most products from all least developed countries, garment from Bangladesh and Cambodia will face difficulties in getting free entry to the US market. The BGMEA has already received reports from the analysts in Washington with the explanation regarding the ‘critical clauses’ in the proposed bill that has darkened Bangladesh’s prospects. In the draft, the bill proposes tariff quotas on sensitive categories of apparels from Bangladesh and Cambodia and proposes that only the amount of garment exported in the year 2014 would get duty-free access for the next 10 years. Any amount over that quantity will not get duty-free access. The bill, however, proposes that the duty-free amount of garments should be increased by 15 per cent annually if there is effective enforcement of labour rights, which will be judged by the US Department of Labour.
The bill, according to analysts, will suggest that a proposed office of ‘director of competitiveness for LDCs’ will have to be assured that the beneficiary country has a market-based economy, promotes the rule of law, adheres to political pluralism and the protection of human rights. In view of the situation, the BGMEA president urged the government and other stakeholders to put strong efforts in persuading the US authorities and lawmakers to ensure proposed benefits from the bills meant for all LDCs to Bangladesh. Meanwhile, a BGMEA delegation led by its chief left for Washington with a mission to plead Bangladesh’s case. Garment factory workers recently also urged the US authorities through a press conference in Dhaka to consider the desperate condition in Bangladesh and not to respond to any plea from interested quarters to cancel the GSP facilities for the country. The workers’ leaders fear that withdrawal of preferential market access to Bangladesh garment in the US market would result in the ruination of the garment industry and cause huge job loss.
