Bangladesh will attend a hearing in the United States in January, 2012 to retain preferential market access and fight allegations over labour standards and use of child workers. At the hearing at the United States Trade Representatives (USTR) in Washington on January 24, government officials will demand the continuation of the generalised system of preferences (GSP).

The move came after a rights group appealed to the US body for cancellation of the facility on the ground of labour standards and child labour. Officials from Commerce, Labour and Employment and Foreign Ministries and Garment exporters' bodies will attend the hearing to fight complaints lodged by the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO). Bangladesh attended the USTR hearing in 2007 and 2009 for retaining the GSP facility. This will be the third hearing of Bangladesh at the USTR. The GSP provides preferential duty-free entry for about 4,800 products from 129 designated beneficiary countries and territories, including Bangladesh. But Bangladesh does not benefit much from the GSP as there are no apparel products on the products' list.

The US government agreed to grant a 97% duty-free facility to the least developed countries at the Hong Kong ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation in 2005. But major export items, such as garments, leather goods and footwear, were not included in the list. As a result, Bangladesh is doing business with the US by paying a 17% duty on an average and the highest duty of 32% on man-made fibre clothes.

On September 27, the US renewed the GSP facility for Bangladesh, allowing duty-free entry to some of its goods. But, the right group in the US appealed to the government for withdrawing such facility on the grounds of standards of labour in the garment factories and child labour in the shrimp sector.

The country's main export item ready-made garment products have been left out of the list of products enjoying the 97% duty-free facility. However, some items are allowed duty-free access under special arrangements like GSP. The tenure of the old GSP scheme expired on December 31, 2011.