Give Bangladesh duty-free access to US markets

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

from the June 11, 2007 edition

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Poverty, as I always point out, and as the Nobel Peace Prize Committee recognized, is a threat to both national and global peace. Poverty is a breeding ground for terrorism. Opening up trade opportunities for all LDCs would create new jobs and raise living standards, helping make the world safer. Families of working women would have their needs met and would not resort to violence.

A major step to reducing poverty is trade. America's duty structure has been unkind to trade with Bangladesh. Last year, Bangladesh paid half a billion dollars in duties on $3.3 billion in exports to the US – the same amount Britain paid on $54 billion in exports. The tariffs Bangladesh paid were equivalent to a tax of about $3.32 on each citizen of Bangladesh, whose per capita annual income is only $480.

Bangladesh is not seeking any special favors. It simply wants to be treated on a par with all other least developed countries.

Eliminating the tariffs on our products would be a win-win for the US. Bangladesh produces lower cost clothing such as T-shirts and nondesigner jeans, commodities American manufacturers long ago abandoned for more lucrative niches. Low-income Americans, for whom clothing is a major expenditure, would benefit from cheaper prices on our products.

If Bangladesh were allowed duty-free access to the American market, my best guess is that our export volume to the United States would double in five years or less. Four million young women would be employed by the garment industry alone, and wages and GNP would rise significantly. Exports of American cotton to Bangladesh would double, and other US exports, such as capital equipment, would rise.

Congress can help create the most dramatic poverty elimination results in human history. The world's poorest and most densely populated country, with Muslims making up 83 percent of its 150.45 million people, can come out gloriously in reducing the number of poor people by half by 2015. At the same time, the country can achieve the other seven millennium development goals. What a history to create!

It will be a great lesson for the world. With this lesson, we can move forward to create a poverty-free world, and put poverty ultimately in the poverty museums.

• Muhammad Yunus, a doctor of economics, received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for working to alleviate poverty with microcredit.

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