DHAKA: Imposing higher duties on apparel exports from Bangladesh to the US is not only inhuman, but also an injustice, as the US government receives lower tariff from other developing and developed countries, a UN official said.
Not only is the US imposing higher duties on Bangladesh at 16.72 percent, it also did not stand beside the nation after the Rana Plaza building collapse, the deadliest industrial accident that took the lives of more than 1,130 workers in 2013.
“Rather, as a punishment, the US suspended the GSP (generalised system of preferences) status for Bangladesh after the industrial accident,” said AK Abdul Momen, ambassador and permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, in an interview with The Daily Star last month.
The suspension of the trade privilege for Bangladesh just after the accident does not put the US in good light; it is also not expected from them as they showed their generosity towards Bangladesh in many instances earlier, he said.
Momen, who is also the president of the High-Level Committee of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, was in Dhaka to attend the ‘High-Level Meeting on South-South Asia and Triangular Cooperation in the Post-2015 Development Agenda’.
“The magnitude of duty discrimination can be seen if we compare it to another country.” For example, France pays 0.5 percent duty on exports to the US, but Bangladesh pays 16.72 percent, despite being a least developed country, he said.
After the Rana Plaza building collapse, members of the US Congress Grace Meng, Peter King and Joseph Crowley visited Bangladesh, but they did nothing positive for the country, he said. “I had hoped that the US would consider duty removal on garment exports from Bangladesh, in the interest of the poor workers.”
Bangladesh paid $860 million as duty to the US government upon exporting apparel worth $5.59 billion last fiscal year.
Of the total annual exports to the US from Bangladesh, apparel items make up for 95 percent. Bangladesh paid $4.1 billion as duty to US customs over the last five years.
The US has allowed duty benefits to the African LDCs under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, but they left Bangladesh out from such a benefit, Momen said.
Moreover, many countries will enjoy duty benefits once the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement between Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the US, comes into effect soon, he added.
He praised the government’s achievements in workplace safety after the Rana Plaza building collapse. A free trade advocate, Momen said the US was a stalwart for free trade, but in case of Bangladesh, they did not show their real spirit.
He also talked about the contemporary global issues and development initiatives taken by the governments and the UN bodies.
