Bangladesh said it has met the conditions put forward by the United States for better safety and workers' rights in its factories that were essential to regain preferential trade status the impoverished South Asian nation lost in 2013 after two disasters killed 1,500 garment workers.
The preferential trade status does not cover Bangladesh's influential garment industry, which helps the country earn USD 25 billion annually and mainly exports to the United States and Europe.
But Dhaka has long lobbied for its garment industry to have duty-free access to the United States and the lost status was seen as a big blow to that goal.
The government said in its statement late Tuesday that all of the 16 conditions set by the US have been met. A delegation of the US Trade Representative's office is visiting Bangladesh to review improvements in safety standards at factories and changes to legal documents allowing for wider workers' rights.
The conditions are needed to regain the Generalized System of Preferences benefit under which the US allows imports of some 5,000 goods from 122 of the world's poorest countries with low- or zero-tariff benefits.
The trade benefit was withdrawn after the collapse of Rana Plaza, a building complex housing five garment factories outside the capital, Dhaka in 2013. The Rana Plaza disaster and a fire at a Tazreen Fashions factory in November 2012 left about 1,500 workers dead and hundreds injured.
