Commerce minister says US ambassador’s zero tariff claim is ‘false’
- Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed speaks at a function of Bangladesh Inventing Agents’ Association in Dhaka yesterday
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed criticised US Ambassador in Dhaka Dan W Mozena for saying Bangladesh pays zero tariff for RMG export to the US market.
“The envoy made a completely false statement,” he said while speaking as chief guest at a function yesterday.
Bangladesh Indenting Agents’ Association (BIAA) organised the programme in the capital’s CIRDAP auditorium to celebrate its winning of ISO certificate.
The day before, Dan Mozena said: “Bangladesh pays zero … zero … zero … zero tariff. The people of America and buyers pay the tariff.”
Tofail responded in the same manner: “Mozena is false…false….false…false. We paid $3.41bn to the US as duty in last five years and pay $828m every year now. The Bangladeshi suppliers are giving the duty at 16.8% to the US buyers.”
He said Canada, EU and Australia can claim they are providing Bangladesh duty-free facility to their markets, and
Japan also makes everything but arms duty-free, while India is giving the facility to all products except tobacco and alcohol. “But this is not true in case of the US.”
BGMEA vice president Shahidullah Azim also told the Dhaka Tribune on Tuesday that Bangladesh pays 16.5% tariff for apparel exports to America.
“We export garment products worth $5bn to America paying $850m every year,” he added.
Tofail Ahmed said Dhaka has been urging Washington for long to make Bangladeshi products free of duty. “But the US didn’t do it, rather suspended the GSP facility.”
He claimed that despite Bangladesh had fulfilled all 16 action plans of the US to get back GSP, the US didn’t proceed on and “put us on new requirements.”
“In fact, we can never meet the US demands as they will keep issuing more and more such matters to be fulfilled.”
Tofail said the government is now searching new markets to bring about diversity. He said Chile had already agreed to provide us with duty-free market access from January 2015. “We are looking for more countries with such facility.”
BIAA President KMH Shahidul Haque said the country’s about 40% import comes from China while BIAA signed an agreement with Legal Affairs Department in Beijing.
He said this will help Bangladesh’s importers and exporters get any dispute solved during the trade.
Shahidul Haque urged the government to include BIAA’s service in the Export Policy 2012-2015 as “Service Export.”
BIAA was awarded ISO certificate on May 30 this year by SAI Global Australia.
The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry President Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, Bangladesh Insurance Association President Sheikh Kabir Hossain and Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Mohammad Shahjahan Khan were also present.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
