Bangladesh has requested duty and quota-free market facilities for Bangladeshi garments made from US cotton. At the same time, Bangladesh has demanded to facilitate the existing registration process for the export of medicines and other potential products such as medicines, ceramics and other products besides clothing.
These demands were raised by Bangladesh in the interim meeting of the United States-Bangladesh Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (TICFA) in the meeting room of the Ministry of Commerce at the Secretariat on Sunday.
At the end of the meeting, the head of the Bangladesh delegation, Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, Tapan Kanti Ghosh told reporters that Bangladesh’s garment industry is now much more compliant. Garment workers here belong to poor communities, and the United States can provide duty-free benefits if they want to contribute to improving their living standards. In addition, according to the provisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United States maintains duty-free benefits for products from the least developed countries of Africa. Then why can’t Asian countries including Bangladesh get it? We have already improved labor conditions considerably and legal reforms have been introduced. He said, on the whole, we have argued that Bangladeshi garment products deserve duty-free access to the US market.
He said that we have asked the United States for technical assistance through which we can increase the production of other products including agriculture and improve the conservation system. At the same time, I have sought help in ensuring standard certification and necessary accreditation for export of agricultural products.
In response to a question from journalists, Tapan Kanti Ghosh said that there was no discussion on labor policy and human rights in the meeting.
He also said that the US delegation has put forward 11-point proposals for the implementation of the reform program to further improve the labor situation in Bangladesh. Besides, they requested the proper implementation of intellectual property law. In the meeting, Bangladesh requested to provide financial assistance under US International Development Finance Corporation facilities.
Note that the United States is interested in increasing the export of cotton to Bangladesh. The US has already abolished the double fumigation system for cotton imports. Because of this, the import of cotton from the United States has increased a lot.
According to data from the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, the market share of US cotton in Bangladesh was 9 percent two years ago. It has now increased to about 14 percent after the abolition of the double fumigation system.
In this situation, Bangladesh has proposed to provide duty-free export facility to RMG products produced in Bangladesh using cotton imported from the United States.
