Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday asked the Commerce Ministry to visit garment and other factories in the United States of America and learn about the US Trade Union facilities and labour rights.
The directive came at a cabinet meeting yesterday, sources said.
Recently, the US trade representative criticised Bangladesh government for not complying with labour standards.
The premier gave her directives to Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed. She said the US officials always criticise the factory environment and labour rights in Bangladesh.
“You immediately send a letter to the USTR about our visit to the US garment and other factories,”a minister who attended yesterday’s cabinet meeting quoted Hasina to have said.
“Do the US authorities really comply with their labour rights though they always give recommendations about ours?” Hasina told her cabinet colleagues.
In the cabinet meeting, the commerce minister informed the PM of the amount of duties Bangladesh pays to the US government for export of ready-made garment items.
Earlier, Tofail Ahmed said Bangladesh had paid $3.04 billion tariff on export of garment products to US over the last five years. The average duty Bangladesh pays to the US is more than 16% and the tariff on garment products is 15.62%.
In comparison, Vietnam pays 8.38%, Indonesia 6.36%, China 3%, Germany 1.16%, India 2.29%, Turkey 3.57% and Hong Kong 1.25% tariff on export of goods to the US market.
At a programme organized by Dhaka Tribune this week, Rob Wayss, Executive Director of Accord, a platform of EU garment retailers, said a total of 9% private sector factories of United States have trade union facilities.
A week ago, at a meeting with the Economic Reporters Forum, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan W Mozena strongly denied that Bangladesh pays tariffs for apparel export to the US market.
He said: “Bangladesh pays zero... Zero... zero tariff.”
All countries except those who have special trade relationship with the United States pay same tariff rate, he said, adding that China export to America is subject to pay 15.5 % tariff, Cambodia export to America is subject to pay 15.5% tariff. “It is totally nonsense.”
“There is no discrimination against Bangladesh in terms of tariff. China, Bangladesh, India and Cambodia all pay the same tariff rate,” he said.
Every newspaper says each year Bangladesh pays to America $800m tariff, he said.
“I want to ask the government of Bangladesh please show me the cheque of $800 million you sent to America. Off course, there is no cheque.”