Tariff payment to USA four times American aid
The import tariff revenue that the US administration realised in 2008 from Bangladesh was four times higher than its aid to the country, a US Senate hearing was told.
International development organisation Oxfam argued before the Senate's Ways and Means Committee that by imposing high import duty on the goods from Bangladesh and other LDCs, the US administration prevents poverty elimination in those poor countries.
'Bangladeshi exporters paid $573 million in tariff to the USA in 2008 and received only $151 million in aid,' Paul O'Brien, vice-president of Policy and Advocacy, Oxfam America, told the Senate.
Highly placed sources in the government told New Age that Oxfam's testimony was placed before the subcommittee on trade of the House Committee on Ways and Means on November 17.
'Similarly, other LDCs and poor countries paid tariffs for exports that were many times more than what they received in aid,' Paul noted.
He pointed out that though the average tariff rate on imports into the United States is 1.7 per cent, Bangladesh pays more than 15 per cent while France, the UK and Saudi Arabia pay average tariff of less than one per cent.
'Bangladeshi exporters pay more than twice as much in tariff to the United States than the UK, even though the value of Bangladeshi exports is only one-tenth the value of UK's exports,' he said.
'Of all the tariff revenue that USA collected from the LDCs in 2008, Bangladesh paid 58 per cent and Cambodia 40 per cent,' Paul told the Senate.
Oxfam sought preferential and quota-free access to USA's market for all goods from LDCs that are suffering from poverty, hunger, disease and lack of economic opportunity.
'Such human tragedy is now magnified by the global economic crisis. Even as the global economy begins to recover, developing countries continue to face increased hardship with mounting food insecurity and soaring unemployment,' said Oxfam.
Oxfam noted that only 0.2 per cent of USA's imports from Cambodia and 0.6 per cent from Bangladesh currently receive preferential market access.
Oxfam pointed out that the exclusion of important manufacturing [mainly readymade garments] and agricultural products from preference programmes means that Bangladesh and Cambodia gain very little from their exports.
'Improving US preference programmes by making them more inclusive, accessible, reliable and easy to use can aid the LDCs in their recovery and growth,' Oxfam argued.
Oxfam recommended that the USA should provide 100 per cent duty-free and quota-free market access for all products from all the LDCs.
According to the Senate's statement, the hearing was arranged for evaluating the operation and impact of the USA's preference programmes.
The hearing, announced by the trade subcommittee's chairman Senator Sander M Levin, was witnessed by three Senators including Jim McDermott.
Tim Reif, general counsel of the USTR, and Sandra Polaski, deputy undersecretary of the USA Department of Labour, attended the hearing.
Cham Prasidh, Cambodia's Minister of Commerce, attended the hearing but no representative from Bangladesh's government or industry was there despite the fact that Bangladesh will be the top beneficiary of any positive decision taken after this hearing.
Bangladesh exported products worth $3.75 billion to the USA in 2008, which was more than one-fourth of the amount of its entire export.
Bangladeshi textile and readymade garments, the export of which amounted to $3.54 billion, are subjected to high duty along with other major exports like textile, frozen shrimp and footwear.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association's president Abdus Salam Murshedy said that they were not aware of the Senate hearing as the Bangladesh mission in the USA had not informed them.
'It would have been better if representatives of the government and industry were there,' he admitted.
Najma Akhtar, a leader of garment factory workers, felt sorry over the absence of any representative from Bangladesh's government or industry in the Senate hearing.
'This is sheer irresponsibility on the government's part. It should know that benefits from the USA never can be achieved by delivering speeches in Dhaka,' said Najma who represented workers in the 2006 tripartite committee formed to review the wages of RMG workers.
http://www.newagebd.com/2009/nov/25/front.html#1
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