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Safety, labour standards key to getting quota raised: Solarz

Star Business Report
Bangladesh apparel manufacturers should comply with international safety and labour standards, which will help them achieve additional quota allotment from the United States, former Representative Stephen Solarz said yesterday.
Solarz. who is lobbying with the US administration for a 30 per cent quota increase from next year, a plea made by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA). spoke to reporters at the end of his visit to Bangladesh.
Bangladesh wants the US Commerce Department to permit it a 30 per cent increase in 16 categories, ready-to-wear products popular among Americans. Exporters say signing of the MOU towards a child-labour-free apparel industry also brightened the image of the United States.
Some 28 categories of Bangladeshi apparel products now face guantltative restrictions. which used to be considered as an advantage for the exporters to enter in the competitive US market.
David N Merrill, former US Ambassador to Bangladesh, persuaded BGMEA in 1995. that
such an agreement would help Increase the exporters to multiply their revenue from the American market. BGMEA signed the MOU with ILO and UNICEF on July 4. 1995 mainly
to send under-age workers to schools with Tk 300 stipend each.
Solarz. now on a visit to Bangladesh, told a news confer -ence in the city that apparel manufacturers here deserved to be rewarded for the MOU and that it would work as "significant incentives for others to follow".
"If the US is really serious about giving a reward, other will come up to receive It by eliminating child labour and placing them in schools." he
sald.
He however warned that getting it wasn't that easy in the given circumstances.
Solarz. who spoke to The Daily Star Tuesday exclusively, again put the likely visit of President Clinton to South Asia early next year as the key event which could help Bangladesh get the benefit.
BGME4 president Mostafa Golam Quddus. vice presidents Nurul Hug Sikder and Abul Kashem Haider, executive committee members Uzair Afzal and Atiqul Islam were also present.
If granted, according to the BGMEA leaders, the country would be able to boost its garment export to the US by more than 8 350 million a year, a privilege Bangladesh would enjoy until 2005. when the quota-free global trading would begin.
Quddus said the World Bank would be co-flnanclng a project to upgrade the safety and working environment of the factories.
Later, talking to The Daily Star. Solarz said he was "confident about the chances' of making the Clinton administration agree.