Sagar Biswas :
US ambassador Marcia Bloom Bernicat on Thursday said that her country has not yet changed its stance about withdrawing the suspension on Generalized System of Preferences [GSP] to Bangladesh despite the change of government in her country.
“I personally want that Bangladesh would get GSP facility. But it needs more steps forward to implement 16 conditions for sustainable compliance. Of them, transparent database, workers’ right and safety and implementation of labour law are very much important,” the envoy categorically said.
She made the statement while talking to the newsmen after holding a meeting with leaders of ready-made-garment [RMG] sector at Ashulia in the outskirts of Dhaka yesterday.
Expressing her optimism, Bernicat said: “Bangladesh has made progress in different sectors. However, if the country wants to get back GSP facility, it will have to fulfil all the 16 conditions given earlier for the compliance.”
Earlier in the day, the envoy went to different factories at Ashulia’s Zirabo and other areas apparently to see the condition of workers’ welfare, workers’ rights and atmosphere of trade union in the RMG units.
It is to be noted that, Bangladesh’s US$25 billion garment industry has been suffering from ‘alleged safety problems’ since the 2013 collapse of a complex, the Rana Plaza, in which more than 1,100 people were killed.
After that, the US authorities suspended the GSP facility on the grounds of factory safety and workers’ rights concerns. Against this backdrop, thousands of factories have been inspected and dozens closed over safety concerns.
At present, more than 7,000 factories in Bangladesh are producing goods for the global fashion business, nearly double the 3,600 exporting factories that the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) operates.
Many of those are small- and medium-sized factories, the workers of which indirectly produced goods for foreign brands through larger factories, factory insiders said.
Officials said the US is the single largest export market for Bangladesh while Washington exports only about $700 million of the total $6 billion two-way trade.
To get back GSP, Bangladesh government had taken strong stance in the last meeting of Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement [TICFA] held in US capital Washington DC. But the effort went in vain.
