Ministry urged to send full report on GSP abuse to EC
Sunday, 24 June 2007
Shakhawat Hossain
The Embassy of Bangladesh in Brussels has requested the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) to send a complete report on abuse of generalised system of preference (GSP) for submission to the European Commission (EC), official source said.
Referring to some of the gross mistakes in the report, the commercial head of the Embassy said in a letter that the report was inadequate and urged the ministry to send a proper one.
Twenty-seven member European Union (EU) is the largest destination of the country's export products. The country fetches almost 60 per cent of its annual exports worth US $ 10.5 billion under the GSP facility to those countries.
"Hence, I am once again requesting you to review the entire matter and send a presentable report without further delay," added the letter.
The MoC prepared the report against the backdrop of widespread allegation by the EC on abuse of GSP offered to Bangladesh by a third country.
The ministry took more than one year to prepare the report after the EC had asked the government of Bangladesh to let it know the detailed procedures of issuance of GSP and rules of origin (ROO) to detect the GSP abuse by a third country.
But according to letter, the report has apparently failed to identify the responsible persons for producing fake and false GSP certificates and also prove that the issuing authority was not involved in such illegal activity.
For an example, the latter said the section 7 of the report has the name of 11sub-sections but unbelievably those have no text and details, which proved incompleteness of the report.
A couple of years ago, the EC alleged more than once that the third country was sending products to its member countries utilising Bangladesh GSP facility.
It claimed that five consignments of goods of some third countries were exported to the EU countries by using through false GSP certificates in the name of Bangladesh. It suspected that the authorities concerned in Bangladesh were involved in such abuse.
Last year, the MoC also probed into the matter and found that a number of local exporters were involved in misuse of GSP facilities under which Bangladesh was granted duty-free export to the EU.
Headed by Nasir Hussein, the former director General of World Trade Organisation (WTO), the probe committee recommended for close monitoring of the activities of export-oriented footwear and readymade garment companies.
The Embassy of Bangladesh in Brussels has requested the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) to send a complete report on abuse of generalised system of preference (GSP) for submission to the European Commission (EC), official source said.
Referring to some of the gross mistakes in the report, the commercial head of the Embassy said in a letter that the report was inadequate and urged the ministry to send a proper one.
Twenty-seven member European Union (EU) is the largest destination of the country's export products. The country fetches almost 60 per cent of its annual exports worth US $ 10.5 billion under the GSP facility to those countries.
"Hence, I am once again requesting you to review the entire matter and send a presentable report without further delay," added the letter.
The MoC prepared the report against the backdrop of widespread allegation by the EC on abuse of GSP offered to Bangladesh by a third country.
The ministry took more than one year to prepare the report after the EC had asked the government of Bangladesh to let it know the detailed procedures of issuance of GSP and rules of origin (ROO) to detect the GSP abuse by a third country.
But according to letter, the report has apparently failed to identify the responsible persons for producing fake and false GSP certificates and also prove that the issuing authority was not involved in such illegal activity.
For an example, the latter said the section 7 of the report has the name of 11sub-sections but unbelievably those have no text and details, which proved incompleteness of the report.
A couple of years ago, the EC alleged more than once that the third country was sending products to its member countries utilising Bangladesh GSP facility.
It claimed that five consignments of goods of some third countries were exported to the EU countries by using through false GSP certificates in the name of Bangladesh. It suspected that the authorities concerned in Bangladesh were involved in such abuse.
Last year, the MoC also probed into the matter and found that a number of local exporters were involved in misuse of GSP facilities under which Bangladesh was granted duty-free export to the EU.
Headed by Nasir Hussein, the former director General of World Trade Organisation (WTO), the probe committee recommended for close monitoring of the activities of export-oriented footwear and readymade garment companies.