RMG's duty-free access to US faces setback

Bangladeshi readymade garments (RMG) may face a setback in its effort to win duty- and quota-free access to the American market as US authorities have responded positively to the appeal of few African countries to exclude the country's RMG from New Partnership Act (NPDA) 2007. Ghana and Mali have recently requested Jim McDermott, chairman of the Ways and Means Sub-committee of the US House of Representative, for excluding five categories of Bangladeshi textile and apparel products from facilities under NPDA. McDermott, in his response, proposed exclusion of three categories of Bangladeshi textile and apparel products from opportunity provided under the NPDA. Bangladesh Ambassador in Washington Humayun Kabir revealed the details during his visit back to Dhaka last month. The diplomat held meetings with industry leaders and senior government officials, according to a high official of the commerce ministry. On several occasions, Bangladesh has tried to make it clear to the African countries that the country's duty free excess to the US market under NPDA will not hamper schemes such as African Growth and Opportunity Act. The chief adviser will meet a number of African Leaders at the UN General Assembly, scheduled to start on September 15 in Washington DC, in yet another effort to make them understand that Bangladesh is not their real threat. The government will convey to African leaders that Bangladesh is not a threat to African LDCs in terms of apparel exports to US market. African LDCs will face real challenges in the textile and apparel sector from China, once the US withdraws its safeguard measures in January 2009. The government will send a high-level business delegation to several African LDCs to convince them that the bill would be beneficial to all the LDCs. Meanwhile, a taskforce has been formed with technical help of Centre for Policy Dialogue to assist the government on the issue. McDermott introduced the NPDA 2007 bill in the US Senate in October 2007 with the aim to reduce extreme poverty worldwide. The legislation will help the people who live on less than $1 per day and primarily live in the LDCs. The NPDA was designed to eliminate all tariffs on the products originating from LDCs and help implement capacity-building programmes to reduce constraints to economic growth.