Bangladesh is not included in the list of 122 countries which will enjoy Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) facilities from the USA after President Barack Obama signed the order in this regard on June 29 last. The order has been effective from July 29 and those countries will be entitled to export 5,000 varieties of items to the USA without paying any duty. The 122 countries include SAARC members India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Afganistan, but Bangladesh is not among them. The name of Russia also has not been included in the list of GSP recipients due to the discord of USA with it on the Ukraine issue. In the notice, number 144, volume 80 of the federal register of the USA issued on July 28, it has been said about Bangladesh and Russia that all other beneficiary countries except Bangladesh and Russia will enjoy GSP facilities in the USA from July 29, 2015. The USA has been in a sort of psychological warfare with Russia since the Second World War. After the end of the cold war, the USA had granted GSP facilities to Russia. But due to the annexation of Crimea of Ukraine to its territory by Russia, the Washington-Moscow relations became extremely hostile. In this perspective, the USA and its allies imposed sanction on Russia and as a result, the GSP facilities to the country were withheld. After the collapse of Rana Plaza on April 24 on 2013, the USA suspended the GSP facilities to Bangladesh on June 27 of the year and it came into effect from September 1, 2013. It was not restored even after the signing of Ticfa deal by Bangladesh with the USA. US trade preference programmes such as the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) provide opportunities for many of the world’s poorest countries to use trade to grow their economies and climb out of poverty. GSP is the largest and oldest US trade preference programme. Established by the Trade Act of 1974, GSP promotes economic development by eliminating duties on up to 5,000 types of products when imported from one of 122 designated beneficiary countries and territories.
