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Bangladesh and Nepal will sit together this week to find out common strategy of both the governments to jointly lobby for duty-free market access of ready-made garments (RMG) in the US, reports BDNEWS.
"Formal discussions in this connection would be held during this week's visit of Bangladeshi Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Choudhury to Nepal," said a senior Commerce Ministry official in the city Saturday.
Before working out of the strategies, the official said a common understanding has to be built at the manufacturers' level of both the countries.
Altaf will go to Nepal Wednesday to inaugurate the Bangladesh Single Country Trade Fair there. He will also discuss bilateral economic ties with his Nepali counterpart, according to the official sources.
"The commerce minister is scheduled to meet the Nepali garment manufacturers to assess the impact of quota-phase out in Nepali industries and discuss ways to push for the US Trade Act 2005 jointly," said Kiran Saakha, president of the Garment Association in Nepal.
The US Trade Act 2005, also known as Tariff Relief Assistance for Developing Economies Act, was tabled in the US Congress on January 26.
It promises to provide 14 least developed countries (LDCs) of Asia-Pacific a duty-free market access for 3,677 goods, ranging from ready-made garments to carpet, handicrafts, sugar, olive, milk and plastic products.
The Act is currently under discussion at the Trade Committee of the House of Representatives and Finance Committee of the Senate.
The garments entrepreneurs of these countries believe that the Act is crucial for reviving the industry, as phase-out of quota in global textile and apparel trading has hit the industry badly.
"Nepal has urged the Bangladesh government to develop cohesive programmes to jointly push for the endorsement of the Act during the visit of the Bangladeshi commerce minister to Nepal," said a Commerce Ministry official.
When asked, President of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Annisul Haque said he is unaware about the imminent talks between Bangladesh and Nepal to sort out strategies to push for the trade act.
"We have already appointed a lobbyist for us," Haque said. "Not all the garment entrepreneurs of the 14 LDCs are agreed to jointly push for the Act by appointing a lobbyist."
Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Samoa, Solomon Islands, East Timor, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Yemen, Kiribati and Laos would be the beneficiary countries of the Act.
According to facts disclosed so far, the Act is similar to the African Growth and Opportunity Act and would be effective until 2014. It prescribes specified Rules of Origin conditions for the beneficiary countries to enjoy duty-free entry in the US market.
Local garment entrepreneurs said that the Rules of Origin conditions were flexible for the first seven years and there were many good things for Bangladesh.
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