Bangladesh has to face a hearing before the United States International Hade Commission (USITC) on the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) facility for Bangladesh-made sleepingbags next month.

Commerce Secretary Md Ghulam Hussain will lead a three-member team at the hearing scheduled for December 1, a senior official said.

A general manager of Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority and a sleeping bag exporter will accompany the commerce secretary.

The USITC has decided to hear from Bangladesh on the issue after a US-based firm filed a petition asking repeal of the GSP facility for Bangladesh-made sleeping bags that entered the US market at zero tariffs.

The US firm. Excel Outdoor, which had filed the petition with Untied States Hade Representative (USTR) earlier this year, wanted sleeping bags to be listed as textile goods and accordingly asked the USTR to remove the same from the GSP list

Following the petition, USTR had taken steps to review the GSP facility.

Responding to the review petition, the government had lobbied with the US government and submitted all documents. After reviewing, the USTR rejected

the petition and decided to continue the GSP facility for such sleepingbags in July.

Again, the US-based firm filed petition and lobbied to cancel the GSP. Following the petition, two US authorities, USTR and the trade commission, will review and hear the issue respectively.

“USTR will review it on November 30 and the USITC is to hear on December 1," said an Export Promotion Bureau official.

The WTO Cell of the commerce ministry, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Bepza and sleeping bag exporters are working on it.

Bangladesh is an emerging exporter of sleeping bags and the export is on the rise, particularly in the USmarket.

According to Bepza, two Korea-based firms that were set up in 2008 in EPZs have been exporting sleeping bags to the US at zero tariffs. The two firms' combined export stood at $3.1 million in the first eight months of 2010. Their exports were $0.61 million in 2009 and $17,000 in 2008.

On the other hand, US imported sleeping bags worth $76.10 million in 2009. Of which over 90 percent were imported from China.

“Chinese firms are behind the petition and they are lobbying strongly to cancel Bangladesh’s GSP facility,” a senior commerce ministry official told The Daily Star preferring not to be named.

sajjad@thedailystar.net