A trade bill has been introduced in the US Senate recently seeking duty-free access facilities to the products from Nepal and 13 other Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to American market.

Senator Gordon Smith had introduced the ‘Tariff Relief Assistance for Developing Economies (TRADE) Act of 2007’ before the Senate on March 15 to extend certain trade preferences to a few LDCs including Nepal for the next 10 years.

The statement on objective of the bill said it is in the mutual interest of the United States and the LDCs to promote stable and sustainable economic growth and development.

Trade and investment often lead to employment opportunities and often help alleviate poverty in these LDCs where unemployment is as high as 70 percent.

The bill further said that the US has recognized the benefits of trade to LDCs by enacting the Generalized System of Preference (GSP) and trade benefits for developing countries.

The challenges of the global trading environment for LDCs are even greater given the end of Multi Fiber Agreement (MFA) in 2005, and certain LDCs, including Bangladesh, Cambodia and Nepal , are particularly vulnerable to the changes that will result from the end of that agreement, US reports said.

The bill, co-sponsored by Senator Feinstein, Senator Craig and Senator Sununu, was referred to the Senate Committee on Finance.

However, the Nepali products getting duty-free access to the US market have not been named. It is also not clear if the readymade garments will qualify for the duty free access. Readymade garments constitute the single largest export product of Nepal to the United States. Entrepreneurs of garments in Nepal have been appealing for duty free access to the US market ever since the end of MF in 2005 – after which the garment exports to the US have declined by over 60 percent.