Action Plan For Us Gsp Revival
Govt achieves visible progress, claims ministry
The government has made significant progress in implementation of the 16-point action plan given by USA for retaining GSP facility in its market, commerce secretary Mahbub Ahmed said on Sunday.
He said that the commerce ministry would send a progress report to the United States Trade Representative anytime between November 10 and 15.‘Different government agencies made visible progress in implementation of each action of 16-point plan and we are hopeful about required development by the deadline of December this year,’ he told reporters after an inter-ministerial meeting at the ministry organised for preparing a progress report for the USTR.
The ministry organised the meeting after the USTR on October 13 sought a progress report from the government on the implementation status of the ‘Action Plan’ by November 15.
Mahbub said that they would hold another meeting on November 8 or 10 to finalise the report for the USTR.
The ministry officials said that the USTR would review the progress that Bangladesh made in implementing the action plan in November and in December with an aim to revive generalised system of preferences benefits for Bangladesh.
On June 27, the US suspended the preferential market access for Bangladeshi products for alleged failure to uphold the labour and safety standards in the readymade garment industry though the RMG products do not get GSP benefits in the US market.
Commerce secretary said that the ministry concerned made significant progress in appointing more inspectors, one of the important tasks under action plan, for labour, fire and building safety inspection.
Labour ministry has already recruited 4 inspectors and recruitment of another 72 inspectors is under process while it created a total post of 679 inspectors for the directorate of labour.
Another proposal for raising the number of fire inspectors to 310 from existing 50 is being considered by the public administration ministry, he said.
The labour ministry is also working on starting fire and building inspection activities very soon, he said.
The government has already achieved full implementation of actions including withdrawal of cancellation of registration of two NGOs and withdrawal of criminal charges against two labour leaders.
The government has also seized assets of suspected accused—Mustafiz—in the killing of labour leader Aminul, he said.
A high-level government committee is also working on amending the current Export Processing Zone Act to enable factory workers to have their freedom of association and collective bargaining rights, he added.
Foreign secretary Md Shahidul Haque, representatives from different ministries and stakeholders’ associations including Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, among others, attended the meeting.
-With New Age input
