Duty-free access for 1700 items to be proposed at WTO meet

18 Apr '06

2 min read

Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Choudhury said that at the upcoming World Trade Organisation meeting in Geneva, Bangladesh plans to seek duty and quota-free access for 1,700 items to global market.

List of items has been prepared keeping in mind they already being exported; the GSP facilities they enjoy, goods being imported by major countries and prediction of its future export items, he said.

The Commerce Minister was speaking at the first meeting of a high profile committee on WTO (World Trade Organisation).

Advisor to Commerce Ministry Barkat Ullah Bulu, Commerce Secretary MA Karim, President of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Mir Nasir Hossain, President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Tipu Munshi, among others, attended the meeting.

The Commerce Minister informed that two separate export lists have been prepared, which are to receive duty- and quota-free facilities in international markets.

One lists has a total of 1,017 goods and second list has 276 items, he added.

Adequate measures to ensure duty-free facilities for least developed countries' products and marketing them in developed countries by September this year have been taken said Altaf Hossain.

Whereas least developed countries would provide duty-free market facilities for developed countries' goods by December 2006, he said.

Officials said Bangladesh exported a total of 602 items to the USA last year. Of them, 369 items, including 314 textile products, have been exported without receiving any duty facility from the USA.

In all 108 items have been exported with duty-free facility under Most Favoured Nation (MFN) rate and another 125 exported under GSP facility to the USA market.

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