Give Bangladesh duty-free access to US markets

Eliminating tariffs on goods from the least-developed countries will help fight global poverty.

By Muhammad Yunus

from the June 11, 2007 edition

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Washington - The garment industry and microcredit have helped bring about a major social revolution in Bangladesh, empowering women in this predominantly Muslim nation. For many years I have been trying to address the issue of poverty through microcredit – small, collateral-free loans to the poor. The results have been most encouraging. In Bangladesh alone, more than 7 million borrowers, 97 percent of them women, have changed their lives and those of their families as a result of these loans.

Poverty and fertility rates are declining, child and maternal mortality rates are dropping, universal primary education now exists, girls outnumber boys in secondary schools in many areas, and women finally outlive men.

Meanwhile, the garment industry, which accounts for most of Bangladesh's exports, has provided jobs and training to 2 million young women, and religious sensitivities to their employment are being overcome. Instead of getting married and bearing children, young women are staying on the job, earning money to have a decent life. This has saved them from abuses that often befall young women, including trafficking, and has ensured a vastly improved life for them and their families.

New industries have grown up around the garment industry, and 15 million people are employed in related sectors. As a result, a new generation of girls is growing up in a Muslim society, creating a liberal, modern attitude among poor families.

But this labor-intensive, export-dependent sector will not continue to grow and thrive unless the United States reduces or eliminates duties on products from Bangladesh and other least-developed countries (LDCs), as it has done for economically depressed nations in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa.

Given their handicaps and slim profit margins, Bangladesh and such countries as Cambodia, Nepal, and Afghanistan need similar trade preferences to better compete against more advantaged nations. Duty-free access to the US market would provide a strong incentive to create new industries, resulting in many more jobs and higher living standards for millions of Asians.

What a difference that could make for Bangladesh, where nearly half the population lives below the poverty line!

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