Bangladesh under fire in USITC hearing

US based international organisation United States International Trade Commission (USITC) Monday organised a virtual hearing regarding five countries that exports readymade garments (RMG) to the US. The representatives from Bangladesh were grilled with numerous questions over a large portion of the four-hour hearing.

USITC chairman David Johanson and his three associates asked about various issues, including labour rights, labour, the relative efficiency of production of workers and their wages.

The USITC started an investigation on these five countries at the behest of the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). The agency will investigate how these five countries have occupied such a huge part of the RMG sector in the US.

The main target of this investigation is to find whether any of this country took control of the market by any unhealthy competition. The other four countries are – India, Cambodia, Indonesia and Pakistan.

The representatives of the commerce ministry of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) answered several questions following their written speeches during the hearing.

BGMEA president Faruque Hassan answered most of the questions on behalf of Bangladesh. Besides, they will have a chance to present written speeches till 24 March. The commission will submit the probe report to the USTR on 30 August.

Commerce secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh said at the beginning of the hearing that the labour wages have been increased by some 316 per cent in three phases over the last 10 years. However, the cost per unit production cost in the garment sector has increased exponentially. Production cost is not the only precondition in the US market where Bangladesh is in the competition. The government is trying to overcome the challenges lying ahead for the garment sector in various ways.

Following the speech of the commerce secretary, the BGMEA president presented his written speech. Following that, three USITC commissioners Rhonda K Schmidtlein, Jason Kearns and Amy A Karpel grilled the Bangladeshi representatives over labour wages, trade union rights, work environment, health services and life insurance. The BGMEA president answered most of the questions.

One of the USITC commissioners asked whether the average work efficiency and production power of the Bangladeshi labourers is higher than Cambodia or not. They asked whether the labourers can produce comparatively more products despite having a lower wage than the labourers of Cambodia.

Faruque Hassan said in response, “It is not possible for me to say whether the Bangladeshi labourers are more competent than the labourers of Cambodia or not. The garment owners of Bangladesh have made huge investments for machines with modern technologies. Bangladesh is at the top of the list in terms of producing products using automated machines. Therefore, the required level of physical labour from the workers is minimal. However, in terms of production efficiency Bangladesh is behind China, Vietnam and Indonesia.”