News Desk :
The European Union (EU) sees all possibilities for Bangladesh to move to GSP Plus scheme from Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme, in terms of exporting Bangladeshi products to the EU.
Gunner Wiegand, managing director for the Asia and the Pacific region of the European External Action Service (EEAS) at the European Union headquarters in Brussels, said this at a reception organised by the Bangladesh embassy in Belgium marking the 51st Independence Day.
He said as a steadfast partner of Bangladesh, a dominant destination for Bangladesh’s export, and a partner for diversifying such exports and investment, green transition, digital transition, the EU sees all the hard work which has gone into the development of Bangladesh.
“This will also allow Bangladesh to move from the Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme to GSP+ (Plus) scheme,” Gunner Wiegand said, according to a statement of Bangladesh embassy in Belgium.
Bangladesh now enjoys duty-free facility under EBA scheme of the European Union market, but that will be phased out in 2026 when Bangladesh graduates the LDC status. Bangladesh can then be entitled to GSP Plus, which, however, requires certain conditions to be met.
Gunner Wiegand highlighted that the EU is aware of the tremendous sacrifices of the
Bangladeshis for independence. Since then, Bangladesh has come a long way to make significant social and economic progress, he said.
Ambassador Jeroen Cooreman, Director General (Bilateral Affairs) from Belgian Public Federal Service Foreign Affairs, underlined that Belgium follows the positive economic development in Bangladesh with very keen interest.
He added that marking the 50 years of their establishment of diplomatic relations this year, Belgian Minister of Development Cooperation Meryame Kitir will visit Bangladesh by the end of April.
The two sides will expand cooperation in the areas of trade, investment, health and pharmaceuticals, knowledge transfer through academic arrangements, climate change, and many other potential areas of mutual interest in the coming days.
In his remarks, Bangladesh Ambassador to Belgium and Head of Mission to EU, Mahbub Hassan Saleh said the nearly five decades-long partnership between Bangladesh and EU has truly been a phenomenally transformational journey.
It began with development cooperation and now has moved to a robust trade partnership with EU being the destination of half of Bangladesh’s total global exports dominated by readymade garments and apparel.
He added that EU’s Everything but Arms (EBA) trade privilege played an extremely important role to continually accelerate Bangladesh’s socio-economic development journey.
He acknowledged that Belgium was one of the first countries to recognize Bangladesh.
Mahbub Saleh underlined that the partnership between Bangladesh and Belgium is growing in the areas like trade and investment, education and research, development cooperation, climate change, Rohingya crisis, and many more.
