Restoring Gsp In Us Market
Commerce asks other ministries to speed up ‘action plan’ implementation
The commerce ministry has asked different ministries and offices to speed up the implementation of the pledges that contained in an action plan the government had given to the United States Trade Representative in November to revive the suspended GSP facility in the U.S. market. The implementation of the action plan progressed at a snail’s pace due to bureaucratic tussle, it was alleged.
The ministry, obliged to coordinate the entire labour and factory related issues centring the generalised system of preference, last week sought to know the implementation status of relevant ministries based on the plan, a senior trade official told New Age.
‘We are coordinating the entire aspects of the action plan as reviving the lost trade facility largely depends on implementation of the plan,’ Mahbub Ahmad, secretary, commerce ministry told New Age on Wednesday.
He said a great deal of progress on the action plan has so far been achieved, while a few pledges included in the plan would soon be implemented as those involve time to complete their administrative and legal requirements.
The ministry of commerce on November 14 sent a progress report to the USTR on implementation status of the ‘action plan’; the U.S. administration had asked the government last June to implement the action plan to revive the suspended GSP facility.
The report, as asked by the USTR to send latest by November 15, elaborated actions so far taken by the government and the future strategy in line with the U.S. plan to revive the lost facility in the U.S. market.
The draft progress report said 200 factory inspectors under the Department of Chief Inspector of Factories and Establishments (DCIFE) would be appointed by December, DCIFE be upgraded to Directorate, 310 posts be created under the Directorate of Fire Service and Civil Defense and 132 inspectors be recruited by RAJUK to strengthen the factory safety inspection regime and ensure quality building construction to establish fire safety in the industrial belts.
The United States on June 28 suspended the GSP facility for Bangladeshi goods entering the U.S. market citing, amongst other things, lack of workplace safety and shortcomings in labour standards in the country’s apparel sector.
The progress report pledged that existing EPZ act would be amended so that no banning on a full-fledged labour union including that of the right to strike in the Export Processing Zones would be in place from January 1, 2014.
The BEPZA authority would not blacklist any workers for their involvement in labour activities, the report vowed.
Trade officials said the draft of EPZ act, 2014, has almost been completed by a high-powered committee, led by secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, Molla Waheeduzzaman.
However, progress in appointing pledged manpower in the Directorate of Fire Service and Civil Defense and in RAJUK has been halted as finance ministry refrains from giving go-ahead to the public administration ministry, it is alleged.
The Department of Chief Inspector of Factories and Establishments has so far recruited 43 factory inspectors out of 200, sources said.
The sources in the labour ministry said the remaining posts of factory inspectors would be recruited by this month.
Officials in the commerce ministry said the USTR would not hold any hearing this time to determine the fate of the country’s GSP, but conduct a review on the progress report to decide on the future of GSP.
-With New Age input
