If the United States does not want, talks on regaining the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) will not be possible at the first meeting of Ticfa likely to be held in Dhaka on April 7, commerce ministry officials said.
Bangladesh wants to raise the issue at the meeting of the Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (Ticfa), but it would depend on the willingness of the US authorities, they said.
Recently, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed spoke about the government plan to raise the issue at the meeting.
The US suspended the trade preferences for Bangladeshi products in June last year as Bangladesh “failed to improve labour conditions, especially in the garment sector.”
The GSP, however, does not cover the garment products that constitute the largest share of the country’s total export volume.
“We are yet unsure whether the GSP talks could be included in the meeting,” Commerce Secretary Mahbub Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune.
The office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) will send the meeting agenda to Bangladesh, he said. “If it does not include the matter, Bangladesh would propose to discuss the issue. But the USTR’s final consent is necessary in this regard.”
Bangladesh may need to attend GSP hearing in Washington for having the facility reinstated. GSP for other countries have also been postponed by the US for a review.
Following a meeting with the US Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan Mozena last week, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said: “A commitment has been adopted at the Bali Conference [WTO] that duty-free and quota-free market access will be given to the least developed countries. This will be discussed as the main agenda at the Ticfa meeting.”
Bangladesh and the US signed Ticfa on November 25 last year and it became effective from January 30 this year.
A delegation, including a group of private investors, from the US is scheduled to visit Dhaka from April 6.
Tofail is hopeful that GSP will be regained by Bangladesh in the US market.“We have fulfilled many [of their] conditions and we will try to fulfill the rest by April,” he said.
After suspension of GSP, Washington asked Dhaka to make progress in 16 areas to have GSP back.
Dan Mozena said the next review of the GSP would be held in May, when it would be based on information submitted by April 15.
In an effort to lessen their tax burden, a host of American companies and trade organisations recently urged the US Congress to immediately restart the GSP programme that expired for all countries on July 31 last year.
“Over the past five and a half months, American companies like ours—and our members—have paid nearly $2m per day in higher taxes while waiting for Congress to renew the programme. We cannot afford to wait any longer,” said the 463 signatories in a letter to the US Congress on January 27.
