The U.S. Bangladesh Advisory Council (USBAC) today spoke at a Capitol Hill briefing co-hosted by the Trade, Aid and Security Coalition and Oxfam America. Speakers at the event included Congressman Jim McDermott, Ms. Shamarukh Mohiuddin, Executive Director of the U.S. Bangladesh Advisory Council, His Excellency, Cham Prasidh, Senior Minister and Minister of Commerce of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and Ms. Stephanie Burgos, Senior Policy Advisor at Oxfam America. The chairman of the Trade, Aid and Security Coalition, Mr. Claude Fontheim moderated the event.
The briefing was attended by House and Senate staff, a number of development NGOs such as Women Thrive Worldwide and Vital Voices, the Food and Agricultural Organization, business representatives including American Eagle Outfitters, Wal Mart, the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation, American Apparel and Footwear Association and others.
Mr. Claude Fontheim who presided over the event said: "Congressman Jim McDermott has done more than anybody to use trade policy to alleviate poverty." In his remarks, Congressman McDermott said: "Market access has an undeniable effect on poverty in any country. Whether you look in Bangladesh, Madagascar or Namibia, the garment factories are filled with women. Our hope is that in the next bill, we will direct our energies to figure out how to help the poorest countries get up on their feet."
Ms. Shamarukh Mohiuddin, Executive Director of the US Bangladesh Advisory Council, an NGO working on US policies towards Bangladesh thanked Congressman McDermott for his leadership in promoting development in the poorest countries. She spoke about the immediate need for U.S. trade policy to provide better access for Bangladesh's textile and apparel exports, citing several looming economic challenges in Bangladesh. She pointed out that Bangladesh currently faces $570 million in tariffs on just $3.7 billion in exports while developed countries such as France face only $378 million on a much larger amount of exports.
Ms. Mohiuddin drew attention to the recent drop in orders for textiles and apparel from Bangladesh and pointed to other dire economic challenges the country is currently facing: including higher food prices, 2 million children affected by acute malnutrition, a rise in the sea level threatening to displace 20 million Bangladeshis (per the IPCC) and a sharp drop in remittances from migrant workers. She stressed that as an LDC and the third largest majority Muslim country with a liberal democracy, Bangladesh deserves much better trade and economic benefits than it currently receives from the United States.
With regard to the objections from Africa groups about duty free market access for Bangladesh, she said: "Only 5 African countries benefit from apparel exports to the US. Of these 5 countries, 3 are not Least Developed Countries, while Bangladesh and Cambodia are LDCs. The only country with a lower per capita income than the Asian LDCs is Madagascar. Even Lesotho has a higher per capita income. If the US's goal is to address poverty through trade preference programs, it hardly makes sense to exclude poor countries such as Cambodia and Bangladesh."
With regard to the larger amount of exports from Cambodia and Bangladesh than from AGOA countries, which has been a point of contention, she said: "Of course our figures are higher; Bangladesh and Cambodia together have an apparel and textile workforce which is 16 times larger than that of sub Saharan Africa. We have to look at the return to each worker from apparel exports for a fair comparison with Africa."
His Excellency Minister Cham Prasidh of Cambodia underscored the importance of duty free quota free access in sustaining his country's economic development. He spoke about Cambodia's success in using the ILO program to improve labor standards and competitiveness. However, he said "We are experiencing stiffer competition from Chinese and Vietnamese products and are seeing a drop both in exports and GDP growth." He pointed out that a number of Cambodian factories had closed their doors recently and that about 52,000 people had lost their jobs. He said: "We face more tariffs than all of Sub Saharan Africa; about $407 million dollars while Africa faces $14 million dollars, while we are just as poor as other African countries."
Ms. Stephanie Burgos from Oxfam America stressed the need for providing 100 percent duty free quota free access for the LDCs, and for a clear, simple and predictable trade preferences program which would stimulate investment and economic development in these countries. She said that for every dollar that the US provides in aid to Cambodia and Bangladesh, it collects $7 in tariffs. She said that the US "must make its trade and aid policies much more coherent." She also said that special attention must be paid to trade capacity building in all LDCs and in making sure that countries are able to utlilize the benefits awarded to them by US trade preference programs. She also pointed out that Bangladesh has made investments in improving its labor standards and talked about the need for providing countries with incentives to improve labor standards through market access, as the US has done in Cambodia.
The event comes at the heels of a major hearing at the House Ways and Means Committee examining US trade preference programs. Congressman McDermott plans to introduce new legislation in the coming days granting more liberal market access for the UN designated LDCs and African countries.
Source: Press Release issued by USBAC on October 18, 2009
The briefing was attended by House and Senate staff, a number of development NGOs such as Women Thrive Worldwide and Vital Voices, the Food and Agricultural Organization, business representatives including American Eagle Outfitters, Wal Mart, the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation, American Apparel and Footwear Association and others.
Mr. Claude Fontheim who presided over the event said: "Congressman Jim McDermott has done more than anybody to use trade policy to alleviate poverty." In his remarks, Congressman McDermott said: "Market access has an undeniable effect on poverty in any country. Whether you look in Bangladesh, Madagascar or Namibia, the garment factories are filled with women. Our hope is that in the next bill, we will direct our energies to figure out how to help the poorest countries get up on their feet."
Ms. Shamarukh Mohiuddin, Executive Director of the US Bangladesh Advisory Council, an NGO working on US policies towards Bangladesh thanked Congressman McDermott for his leadership in promoting development in the poorest countries. She spoke about the immediate need for U.S. trade policy to provide better access for Bangladesh's textile and apparel exports, citing several looming economic challenges in Bangladesh. She pointed out that Bangladesh currently faces $570 million in tariffs on just $3.7 billion in exports while developed countries such as France face only $378 million on a much larger amount of exports.
Ms. Mohiuddin drew attention to the recent drop in orders for textiles and apparel from Bangladesh and pointed to other dire economic challenges the country is currently facing: including higher food prices, 2 million children affected by acute malnutrition, a rise in the sea level threatening to displace 20 million Bangladeshis (per the IPCC) and a sharp drop in remittances from migrant workers. She stressed that as an LDC and the third largest majority Muslim country with a liberal democracy, Bangladesh deserves much better trade and economic benefits than it currently receives from the United States.
With regard to the objections from Africa groups about duty free market access for Bangladesh, she said: "Only 5 African countries benefit from apparel exports to the US. Of these 5 countries, 3 are not Least Developed Countries, while Bangladesh and Cambodia are LDCs. The only country with a lower per capita income than the Asian LDCs is Madagascar. Even Lesotho has a higher per capita income. If the US's goal is to address poverty through trade preference programs, it hardly makes sense to exclude poor countries such as Cambodia and Bangladesh."
With regard to the larger amount of exports from Cambodia and Bangladesh than from AGOA countries, which has been a point of contention, she said: "Of course our figures are higher; Bangladesh and Cambodia together have an apparel and textile workforce which is 16 times larger than that of sub Saharan Africa. We have to look at the return to each worker from apparel exports for a fair comparison with Africa."
His Excellency Minister Cham Prasidh of Cambodia underscored the importance of duty free quota free access in sustaining his country's economic development. He spoke about Cambodia's success in using the ILO program to improve labor standards and competitiveness. However, he said "We are experiencing stiffer competition from Chinese and Vietnamese products and are seeing a drop both in exports and GDP growth." He pointed out that a number of Cambodian factories had closed their doors recently and that about 52,000 people had lost their jobs. He said: "We face more tariffs than all of Sub Saharan Africa; about $407 million dollars while Africa faces $14 million dollars, while we are just as poor as other African countries."
Ms. Stephanie Burgos from Oxfam America stressed the need for providing 100 percent duty free quota free access for the LDCs, and for a clear, simple and predictable trade preferences program which would stimulate investment and economic development in these countries. She said that for every dollar that the US provides in aid to Cambodia and Bangladesh, it collects $7 in tariffs. She said that the US "must make its trade and aid policies much more coherent." She also said that special attention must be paid to trade capacity building in all LDCs and in making sure that countries are able to utlilize the benefits awarded to them by US trade preference programs. She also pointed out that Bangladesh has made investments in improving its labor standards and talked about the need for providing countries with incentives to improve labor standards through market access, as the US has done in Cambodia.
The event comes at the heels of a major hearing at the House Ways and Means Committee examining US trade preference programs. Congressman McDermott plans to introduce new legislation in the coming days granting more liberal market access for the UN designated LDCs and African countries.
Source: Press Release issued by USBAC on October 18, 2009
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