Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi has sought duty-free benefits from the United States of America (USA) for importing cotton.
"Bangladesh is the second largest exporter of Ready-made Garments (RMG) in the world. About 82 per cent of Bangladesh's total exports come from RMG. The USA is a major cotton producer. Every year, Bangladesh imports a huge amount of cotton from different countries for use in garment factories. If the USA grants Bangladesh duty-free trade facilities for the import of cotton for use in RMG factories, it will benefit our industry," he said.
Tipu said this while speaking as the chief guest at the "4th Global Cotton Summit Bangladesh-2023" organized by Bangladesh Cotton Association (BCA) in collaboration with Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) at Hotel Radisson Blue Water Garden in Dhaka, reports BSS citing a press release.
In his speech, Tipu said Bangladesh needs nine million belts of cotton to export RMG to the world market.
Out of this, only 1,50,000 belts of cotton are produced in the country and the production is about 1.6 per cent of the total demand, he added.
He said, "Bangladesh has to import the remaining huge amount of cotton from different countries. Bangladesh is making efforts to increase cotton production in the country. More efforts will be made in the coming days."
Tipu mentioned that if Bangladesh wants to export RMG worth US$ 100 billion in the next two years, a huge amount of cotton will be required.