Take up garment issue with Rumsfeld

The BGMEA Oikya Jote made the appeal at an emergency meeting with its President Engineer Mohammad Fazlul Azim in the chair.

The meeting, on behalf of the garment manufacturers and exporters of Bangladesh, welcomed the visit of Rumsfeld.

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It also reviewed the conditions prevailing in the readymade garments sector of the country.

It noted with great concern that about 30 percent of readymade garment industries are already shut down and many more would be facing total closure when WTO regulations come into effect in January 2005.

The meeting said while Bangladesh enjoys quota-free access and GSP facilities in EU countries and Canada, it (Bangladesh) is deprived of such facilities in the US market although 77 countries of the third world have been accorded quota-free and duty-free access there.

It observed that despite Bangladesh's best efforts to get quota-and-duty-free access to USA, the US government has yet to give a decision in this regard.