The United States has tagged ensuring labour rights binding any trade benefit for Bangladesh under any scheme through which it helps least developed nations, officials said. “…improvement in the labour sector is the threshold for Bangladesh to qualify for any trade benefit from US whether it is under GSP or DFQF or TPP,” deputy US trade representative Robert Hollyman was quoted as saying recently to Bangladeshi officials in the USA. The remark came when Bangladesh Ambassador to the US Mohammad Ziauddin met Mr Hollyman late last month in Washington to voice Dhaka’s concern about the possible stiff competition Bangladeshi apparels might face from the Vietnamese ones after the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) comes into play in the trading arena. TPP is a trade agreement among twelve Pacific Rim countries, which will lower trade barriers, such as tariffs, among the signatories. Members of the vast trading bloc are Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the United States, Vietnam, Chile, Brunei, Singapore, and New Zealand. Among the TPP members Vietnam is a major competitor of Bangladesh in apparel export globally. Local apparel manufacturers fear Bangladesh’s apparel export will face uneven competition once Vietnam starts to enjoy tariff preference in other TPP-member countries. Officials said during the meeting the ambassador also sought suggestions as to how Bangladesh could join in the TPP if it wants to. Mr Ziauddin also mentioned the duty-free and quota-free (DFQF) scheme and said Bangladesh and other Asian least developed countries (LDCs) are facing discrimination because of AGOA (advanced growth opportunity act), a trading arrangement under which the African LDCs enjoy unlimited free access to the US market. The US recently renewed AGOA for another ten years, up to 2025. Officials said Mr Hollyman appreciated the progress so far Bangladesh has made regarding labour safety and other related issues, but underscored the urgent need for achieving other goals under Sustainability Compact, a collective effort of the government of Bangladesh, the European Union, the International Labour Organisation, and the US to improve factory safety and workers’ rights. He also emphasised allowing registration of trade unions, especially in the Export Processing Zones, and implementation of the rules of the amended labour law. Mr Hollyman said restoration of generalised system of preferences (GSP) for Bangladesh is the first step for seeking any other trade benefit from the US. When contacted on Friday, senior vice president of Bangladesh Garment Manufactures and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Faruque Hassan told the FE a lot of works had been done on the labour rights front. “The conditions the US and the EU raised on labour rights issue are almost fulfilled. The same is applicable in case of their demand about labour rights in BEPZA,” he said. Mr Hassan said the US should withdraw the suspension of GSP facility for Bangladesh as their conditions are met through improving labour rights and workplace-safety situation. “It’s a continuous process. A significant level of improvement is done. More to follow,” he said, adding that by the end of this year, factories which still have some more improvements to do in the field of workplace safety will have done it all. The GSP facility in export to the US market was suspended and a recipe for improving the aforesaid standards in Bangladesh’s apparel industry handed to Dhaka following some fatal incidents in factories in the recent past.
