The country’s apparel exporters on Sunday urged the visiting US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal, for a move to push the US buyers for increasing the prices of products. Better prices for apparel products are necessary to ensure workplace safety and workers’ rights in Bangladesh, they told Nisha. In a luncheon meeting in honour of the US assistant secretary of state at Hotel Westin in the capital, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association leaders requested withdrawal of the suspension of Generalised System of Preferences facility for Bangladeshi products on the US market, association leaders said.
‘We have also demanded duty-free access for Bangladeshi garment products to the US market,’ BGMEA vice-president Shahidullah Azim told New Age after the meeting.
Stressing on improved working condition and workers’ rights, the US leader said that she was very much optimistic about the regain of GSP facilities for Bangladesh, he said.
Shahidullah said that they had conveyed their message to Nisha that the garment owners had agreed a new wage structure for the workers proposed by the government.
Conveying the message of US president Barack Obama, the US assistant secretary of state said in economic aspects, there was a huge potential for Bangladesh in Asia, the BGMEA leader said.
Nisha said in the meeting that the Obama government thought that the GDP of Bangladesh would double in the next 30 years and the country would play number one roll to rebalance the economy of Asia, Shahidullah said.
The US leader wanted to know the progress of the commitments in the readymade garment sector which had been made after the tragic Rana Plaza collapse at Savar on April 24, BGMEA leaders said.
They also said that they had held a very fruitful meeting and Nisha assured the garment sector leaders of working together to continue the progress in the sector.
Earlier, the US assistant secretary of state met the representatives from the International Labour Organisation and labour activists who work for the American Solidarity Centre.
Nisha arrived in Dhaka on Saturday on a three-day visit, her first since she took over as the assistant secretary of state on October 21.
-With New Age input
