Dhaka: As indicated earlier in January this year’s review, Bangladesh has been excluded in the renewal of Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).

Claiming that Bangladesh is not being given the GSP facilities due to political reasons, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said, ‘We have met the conditions to get back the facilities but we are not being included in the GSP renewal. Some countries like Pakistan, Vietnam and some other African countries have been given the benefits even though they are in worse condition than us.’

Tofail also said, ‘We have met all the 16 conditions. It will not affect our garments sector even though GSP facilities are not given back. We are a nation of heroes. No conspiracy will hinder our progress.’

On 29 June 2015, President Barack Obama signed into law a bill (H.R. 1295), that re-authorises the GSP through 31 December 2017, according to Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

This excludes goods that entered from Russia, which formally graduated from the GSP programme on 4 October 2014, and any other countries that are no longer eligible for GSP benefits, such as Bangladesh.

In January this year’s review, the USTR recognised progress but urged that more needs to be done on worker safety and rights.

The USTR-led interagency review concluded that while Bangladesh has made progress over the last year to address fire and building safety issues in the ready-made garment (RMG) sector, further progress is needed, including to address serious worker rights issues, before the reinstatement of Bangladesh’s trade benefits under the GSP can be considered.

President Obama suspended Bangladesh from GSP in June 2013 based on Bangladesh’s failure to meet statutory eligibility requirements related to worker rights.

GSP is a trade scheme under which the US allows import of more than 5,000 goods from 122 least developed and developing countries with lower or zero-duty benefit.

Under the new law, duty reductions under the GSP program will begin 30 days after the law is enacted, which took effect on 29 July 2015.

It also extends duty reductions retroactively for any goods entered in between 31 July 2013, and the effective date.

Accordingly, filers shall be entitled to file GSP-eligible entry summaries, utilising the Special Program Indicator (SPI) "A," "A+," or "A*," without the payment of duty for shipments entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption effective 29 July 2015.

Bangladesh experienced two industrial disasters–Tazreen Fashions fire and Rana Plaza building collapse that forced the US suspended GSP for Bangladesh in June 2013, citing serious shortcomings in labour rights and workplace safety.