Economists and labour leaders on Wednesday lambasted the US government for not restoring the Generalised System of Preference (GSP) facility to Bangladesh. At a dialogue on compliance and margin in apparel sector held in Dhaka, they said that the US provided GSP facility to 122 countries, but kept out Bangladesh from the list though the working standards and other compliance issues were not better in those countries than Bangladesh. The US on June 29 renewed the GSP benefits for 122 countries up to 2017 under which the products of those countries will get duty-free and quota-free access to the US market. The US suspended Bangladesh from GSP facility in June 2013, for what they said, Bangladesh’s failure to meet requirements related to workers rights. CPD chairman Rehman Sobhan said that the USA gave the GSP facility to many countries having different economic capacities. ‘Elephants, horses and goats have been given the GSP facility but Bangladesh has been excluded,’ he said. He said that the USA government should transparently explain the actual status of Bangladesh on the issue. Researchers should evaluate the workers rights, working conditions and other compliance issues of those countries and compare them with the Bangladesh standards, he said. CPD distinguished fellow Debapriya Bhattacharya termed the decision of the USA as a bad decision, saying that the working condition and standards issues are not in more bad shape in Bangladesh than those countries that got the US GSP benefits. Suggesting the government for fighting to retain the GSP facility for local exporters, he said that the government should not abandon its efforts to restore the benefit out of frustration as GSP is a fair right of Bangladesh in international trade system. United Federation of Garment Workers president Roy Ramesh Chandra said that the USA did injustice by not giving the facility to Bangladesh. The compliance issues are not better in other countries that received GSP than Bangladesh, he said. The Centre for Policy Dialogue and German-based Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung jointly organised the programme entitled ‘Bangladesh Apparel Sector : Does Margin Matter in Ensuring Compliance’ in BRAC Centre Inn in Dhaka.
