Bangladesh to raise issue of US GSP revival at TICFA meeting in Nov

The United States does not offer GSP to any country now. The tenure of the last GSP programme ended in 2020 and the US Congress has not revived it. The US trade representative (USTR) suspended the GSP benefit for Bangladesh on June 27, 2013, citing poor labour rights and poor workplace safety following two industrial disasters.

As Bangladesh has made improvements in workplace safety, one of the preconditions of the US government, Dhaka will reiterate the issue of restoration of the US generalised system of preferences at the Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement meeting in Washington in November, according to senior secretary in the commerce ministry Tapan Kanti Ghosh.

Once the US Congress adopts a new GSP programme for different countries in the near future, Bangladesh will again urge USTR to revive the GSP for itself, said Ghosh.

The Obama administration then also released 16 preconditions necessitating improvements from the government and the private sector for GSP reinstatement.

Bangladesh has amended the labour law and made improvements in workplace safety following guidelines of two international platforms, Accord and Alliance, and submitted the progress reports to the USTR twice for revival of the GSP.

However, the benefit was not revived, citing the need for further improvements in labour and intellectual property rights.

The fifth US-Bangladesh TICFA Council was held in Dhaka on March 5, 2020. TICFA was signed in 2013.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)