Dhaka: Apparently indicating the USA, Bangladesh Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed on Saturday expressed displeasure for talking too much about trade unions instead of saying anything about the raising the prices of Bangladesh apparel products.

He wondered why only Bangladesh will be in discussion when it comes to trade union and why not such talk about Vietnam, China, India, Pakistan and other countries, reports news agency UNB.

“Only Bangladesh, why?,” Minister Tofail said in presence of US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat and global apparel partners at a session of Dhaka Apparel Summit 2017.

The Commerce Minister posed a couple of questions to the audience saying can anybody talk about trade union of Vietnam, China and any other country of the world?

“No,” the minister said adding that because the head of trade union in Vietnam is no one other than a minister.

Tofail said the government, immediately after the Rana Plaza disaster, ratified the Bangladesh Labour Law in 45 days.

“Nobody could do that,” he said mentioning that there was an accident in the USA in 1926 and it took 30 years to amend their labour law. “But we did within one month and 15 days.”

After the Rana Plaza collapse, the minister said Bangladeshi exporters invested a huge amount of money but not a single penny was increased to help Bangladesh’s export sustain. “Nobody talks about that. Nobody talks about price, nobody talks about expense.”

Amid huge applause from the floor, Tofail continued saying lots of money had to be spent but the price has been decreased. “This is the position today.”

In an emotional voice, Tofail said, “Bangladesh is a country of heroes. We got this country with the sacrifice of lives of 3 million people. It’s Bangladesh’s Prime Minister who could say sitting on parliament floor that I won’t take money from the World Bank… I’ll build Padma Bridge with our own resources. She did it.”

Citing his conversation in a conference back in 2014 in the USA, the Commerce Minister said only 7 percent of public sector industries in the USA have trade unions while 37 percent in the private sector.

“We want trade unions,” he said adding that they do not want to see outsiders as leaders of trade unions.

On investment facilities in Bangladesh, the Commerce Minister said Bangladesh has an excellent investment policy in place. “We’ve introduced a liberal investment policy and the current government is a business-friendly government.”

Expressing dissatisfaction over not getting duty-free market access to the US market, he said Bangladesh is ahead of many developing countries as far as the export is concerned.

Minister Tofail also mentioned that the US has suspended GSP benefit for Bangladeshi products though RMG is not under the special trade benefit.

Bangladesh’s export is $34.2 billion and it will be $ 37 billion this year, he mentioned.

Regarding the infrastructure challenge Bangladesh faces, he said he has a hope that many of the problems will be addressed by 2018. 

The Commerce Minister, through the US Ambassador, thanked US President Donald Trump as he signed an executive order formally withdrawing the country from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal acting on the promise he made during his presidential campaign.

Senior research fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Dr Nazneen Ahmed presented the keynote paper in the session.

US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat, Managing Director of Apex Footwear Ltd Syed Nasim Manzur and Country Head, Marks and Spencer Shwapna Bhowmick and BGMEA vice president Mohammed Nasir spoke at the session held with FBCCI first vice president Md Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin moderating it.