Bangladesh needs to take rigorous steps to qualify for the EU’s GSP Plus facility by complying with core international standards in the areas of human and labour rights, environmental protection and good governance, underlined Abul Kasem Khan, President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI).
In this regard, the apex trade body has proposed to form a monitoring cell headed by the Bangladesh Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, to address all the necessary areas immediately. The proposal was made at a meeting between DCCI and Tofail Ahmed at the latter’s Secretariat Office in Dhaka on January 31, 2018.
The DCCI Chief also requested the Government to consider providing subsidy in order to match the price of Liquefied Natural Gas with that of household gas.
“The Government should pay more attention to qualify for the EU’s GSP plus scheme as the EU is the single-largest export destination for Bangladeshi goods including the promising apparel items,” Khan maintained while talking to Apparel Resources over the phone.
“Once we graduate to a middle-income country from the LDC, we’ll loss the zero-duty benefit under the EU’s everything but arms (EBA) policy, hence, the Government should take actions to address all the required areas for qualifying,” he further added.
Of the total exports, more than 60 per cent or US $ 18 billion are destined to the EU in a year. The EU is currently taking opinions from different stakeholders regarding GSP Plus as the European Commission will revise the Status for beneficiary countries.
As per the plan of the Government, Bangladesh will graduate to a middle-income country from the least developed country by the end of 2021. After the graduation, the country may not enjoy the zero-duty benefit under the EU’s everything but arms (EBA).
However, the EU will provide the same trade benefit post-graduation under the GSP Plus scheme but Bangladesh will have to upgrade conditions in four areas.