Expressing concern over US sanctions on RAB and some officials, the apparel apex body hopes the action will not affect Bangladesh's garment trade with Bangladesh's single-largest export destination.
"We're concerned… but we're doing our part and don't want to lose any market or buyers," said Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) president Faruque Hassan on Wednesday.
"We've good relations with our buyers and hope there will be no sanction on us," he said on an upbeat note.
Mr Hassan was talking to the media at a dialogue hosted by the Economic Reporters' Forum (ERF) at its office in Dhaka city.
Terming the issue 'political', he said, "The US is the single-largest export destination for local ready-made garment (RMG) and export is increasing there and will go up further."
Bangladesh has met all the conditions to get back the generalised system of preferences (GSP), although RMG never enjoys GSP facility in the US market, he added.
Mr Hassan shared his views on garment business with economic and business reporters at the event moderated by ERF general secretary SM Rashidul Islam.
He suggested that apparel makers strongly negotiate with buyers to get a fair price of their items, especially to get a better rate of CM (cost and making) which is yet to see any rise.
"Both quantity and unit prices of apparel items have increased in recent months but we are unable to raise the CM rate."
Despite a drop in prices over the years, Mr Hassan said, unit prices have increased mainly because of the high prices of inputs or raw materials like cotton and yarn, and other logistic costs like freight charge.
"But still the prices of apparel items have not increased in line with raw material prices," he said, exhorting exporters to effectively negotiate with buyers when taking work orders.
BGMEA and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufactures and Exporters Association (BKMEA) have recently formed a joint committee to set a minimum benchmark to get fair prices from buyers and stop unhealthy competition among exporters.
The BGMEA chief said not to worry-no work order has been cancelled due to Omicron to date.
Few buyers from the European Union have asked to delay delivery for seven to 10 days, he added.
He explained measures like skills development, courting investment, and both market and product diversification taken by the government and the industry to face post-graduation challenges.
Without going into details, the BGMEA president, however, alleged that they were facing difficulties related to customs and revenue board.
"I don't want to go into details of the issues related to the NBR as we sit shortly to address those."
Mr Hassan said they would publish the accurate number of garment factories and the workers employed within the next three months.
Non-member factories will be brought under an umbrella authority to ensure safety and other compliances.
On current export growth, Mr Hassan hopes to sustain the trend until April 2022, saying they have already booked a huge quantity of work orders from international retailers and brands.
ERF vice-president Shafiqul Alam also spoke.
