Bangladeshi sleeping bags can enter the US market duty-free

As the U.S. Senate passed a law to update the GSP, Bangladeshi sleeping bags could be tax-free into the U.S. market by July 31, 2013.

However, Bangladesh has only limited benefits from the GSP, because clothing items are not part of the preferential products. However, sleeping bags were included in the GSP list because they did not appear as textile items.

In December last year, the U.S. trade representative filed an application to prohibit tax-free import of sleeping bags from Bangladesh. The trade representative maintains that sleeping bags should also be included in the taxation category, as are other textile items, because this creates competition for U.S. sleeping bag manufacturers. Thus, the US International Trade Commission held two hearings on this issue.

In Bangladesh, the production of sleeping bags is still in its infancy. Last year, the export revenue from sleeping bags was only US$5.3 million.

In the United States, 10-40% import duty is levied on sleeping bags, and manufacturers in Bangladesh are currently exempted from paying import duties due to the retention of the tax exemption mechanism.