Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed on Tuesday commented that Bangladesh could not restore the Generalised System of Preference (GSP) facility on the US market only on political consideration. Bangladesh has fulfilled 16 conditions attached by the USA, he said. “If Bangladesh does much more than that, they [US] won’t lift the ban on GSP.” Tofail made the remarks while talking to reporters at his office at the secretariat. Earlier, he exchanged views with Slovenian Ambassador in Dhaka Darja Bavdaj Kurette. The minister said, “Without political reason, Bangladesh lacks nothing to enjoy GSP facility. When Barack Obama himself has praised the role of Bangladesh in Nairobi, there should be no other reason for not getting the GSP.” He hoped as the USA has Trade and Investment Cooperation Framework Agreement (Ticfa) deal with Bangladesh, it will withdraw suspension under it. “I’m no more interested to take any further initiative to regain the GSP. We’ve met all the conditionalities and we have nothing more to do,” Tofail said. He said they do not offer GSP facility for RMG exports, rather they talk much over garment workers, they offer GSP facilities over plastic and ceramic goods whereas they have no headache for the workers in these factories. “There are some labour leaders here who don’t work in factories, they act with many international organisations. They have caused harm to the sector as they sent letters to US Congressmen and USTR. In fact, they are not workers.” He said, “I can tell you personally that there are some countries who don’t want the rise of Bangladesh, especially those who did not support us during the 1971 liberation war.” Informing that for the RMG all the countries have given duty-free, quota-free access to Bangladesh, Tofail, also an Awami League heavyweight, said many African countries get GSP facility but they have no export capacity. He said, “During the 2012-13 fiscal year, we exported $23 million under GSP whereas our total export was 5.5 billion. So, GSP cancellation won’t harm us.” “Without giving special focus on any particular country, we should rather emphasise market diversification and product diversification. The prime minister has also given such an instruction to this end.” Regarding a meeting with the Slovenian envoy, Tofail said we can set food processing industry and hydraulic power plant with Slovenia’s cooperation. In reply to a query, he said commodity market will become normal ahead of Eid-ul-Azha. “We’ll sit with businessmen. There’re huge stockpiles of commodities… So, there is no reason for a hike in commodity prices.” Regarding soaring price of onion, Tofail said onion has risen up in price globally five times the normal rate. Local onion growers have also hiked the price in tandem with the international market.
