The Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) considered this current year as a challenging year for BGMEA because of the present Russia-Ukraine war, inflation, and unstable dollar prices.
The President of BGMEA, Faruque Hassan was addressing a press conference on the current situation of the country’s readymade garment industry at the trade body’s headquarters in the capital yesterday.
Answering a question from The Daily Post reporter, he ensured that as the Least Development Country (LDC) Bangladesh would get some exemption for the claim of counterfeit. We sent a letter to every BGMEA member concerned about counterfeiting.
Shovon Islam, Vice President of BGMEA said there are many counterfeit allegations in India per year. Some claims have expired 12 years, no strict decision has come from the USTR. We will start QR code /barcode tag on every piece of the product.
The BGMEA president said, our Ready Made Garment (RMG) products increased 10.12 percent in amount from the previous year. But it does not increase in quantity. In the last four decades, we have failed to develop diversification. 52 percent of Non-Cotton RMG products are exported globally, but we export only 26 percent. Enrich in Non-Cotton products should be the main ambition to increase RMG products in our country.
We try to make circular fashion as it is very full in demand, and we have five lakh ton wastage products to make recycling. If we export and establish the circular industry, we will get $5 billion from export.
The apex trade body president informed us that we have set a visionary plan to reduce 30 percent of carbon within 2030.
It is noted that the United States Trade Representative (USTR) started a Special 301 Review on intellectual property protection and enforcement against counterfeit and illicit goods following a submission from the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) and a French-based organization the Union des Fabricants (Unifab) to the USTR to include Bangladesh in the priority lists if the review for alleged involvement in exporting counterfeit apparel products.
Receiving allegations from the AAFA and Unifab, the USTR conducted a review and requested Bangladesh on February 10 to submit written comments on the issue by February 13. If the counterfeit is proven against Bangladesh, those countries may impose extra VAT as a penalty.
JH
