The United States on Sunday provided an 11-point ‘Bangladesh Labor Action Plan’ and urged the government to implement it in order to avail duty-free benefits and access to funds of the US International Development Finance Corporation.
At Bangladesh-US Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement Intersessional Meeting held at the commerce ministry conference room in the capital Dhaka, the US representatives also said that extending Generalised System of Preference to Bangladesh was solely dependent on the decision of the US congress.
At the meeting with the commerce ministry high officials, assistant US trade representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch handed over the 11-point action plan to the commerce secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh.
‘We have informed the USTR representatives about the progress of Bangladesh’s labour sector reforms and demanded duty-free entry of readymade garment to the US and the access to DFC fund,’ the commerce secretary told reporters following the meeting.
If it is not possible to allow GSP facility for Bangladesh, the commerce secretary urged the USTR delegation to allow duty-free market access of Bangladeshi readymade garment made with the cotton imported from the US.
Tapan said that in the 11-point labour action plan the US urged Bangladesh to address anti-union discrimination and to lower 20-percent worker threshold for registration of trade unions.
The US also urged the government to repeal the provision in the labour act that calls for cancellation of a trade union if it falls below the minimum threshold, the commerce secretary said.
He said that the USTR delegation demanded bringing export processing zones under the Bangladesh labour act to allow workers form and join trade unions.
Tapan said that the issues of technology transfer support in establishing quality certification infrastructure, simplified procedure for pharmaceuticals products registration and acts on intellectual property rights were discussed in the meeting.
The USTR director for labour Jennifer Oetken, director for South Asia Emily Ashb, USTR IPR councilor for South Asia and economic unit chief of the US Embassy in Dhaka Joseph Giblin, among others, attended the meeting.
