Govt finalises progress report on Action Plan next week

Talha Bin Habib | Published: April 10, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The government will finalise the progress report on 'Bangladesh Action Plan 2013' on April 13 before sending it to the United States Trade Representatives (USTR) by 15th of the current month in a bid to regain a suspended trade facility in the US market.
An inter-ministerial meeting will be held on April 13 for finalising the progress report. Revival of the generalised system of preferences (GSP) by the US administration for Bangladeshi products in the former's market depends on the report.
"We will finalise the country's progress report in the inter-ministerial meeting on April 13, 2014. We hope we will be able to send it (the report) to the US government by April 14, 2014, just a day before the deadline," a high official of the ministry of commerce, involved in preparing the report, told the FE.Â Â
The MoC will send the report to the Bangladesh Mission in Washington. The Bangladesh mission will send it to the US. The report is due to be submitted to the US government on April 15.
Earlier in 2007 the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisation (AFL-CIO) submitted a petition to the US government for suspending GSP facility mentioning that Bangladesh did not follow the international labour standard.
Hearings on the issue had been held in 2009, 2011 and 2013 before the US government suspended GSP facility following the tragic incident at the Rana Plaza that claimed 1134 garment workers' lives on April 24, 2013 and the Tazreen Fashions fire that claimed 112 lives on November 24, 2012.
The US government asked Bangladesh to fulfill 16 conditions for regaining the GSP facility. The conditions include improvement of working environment, fire safety, allowing trade unions in Export Processing Zones (EPZ's) and recruitment of inspectors.
Most of the conditions were fulfilled by the government. Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said recently that Bangladesh would fulfill all the conditions required for revival of the GSP facility soon.
Improvement of working conditions, amendment to the existing labour law, appointing inspections and introduction of a data base on workers are the areas of progress the country has made so far.
Officials say the report is vital to regain the country's GSP facility in the US market. On receipt of the progress report, the US government will conduct its next review of the GSP Action Plan in May. Â
Â High officials of the concerned ministries, departments and leaders of the related trade bodies will attend the meeting convened by the ministry of commerce on April 13.
Mr Mikail Shipar, secretary of the labour and employment ministry, said: "We have so far appointed 67 inspectors out of 200 and we hope the rest of the inspectors would be recruited soon."
Appointing 200 factory inspectors is a key condition for getting back the GSP facility. Â
Bangladesh exports goods including readymade garments (RMG) worth over US $ 5 billion to the US market annually.
But under the GSP facility, Bangladesh's exports to the US market account for only $ 26 million or 0.54 per cent of Bangladesh's total exports to the US market.
Plastic items, ceramic products and dry fishes were exported to the US market under the GSP facility.