Bangladesh wants the US to reduce discriminatory duty on shipments of garment items so as to make Bangladeshi products more competitive in the American market. The duty structure for Bangladeshi products can be seen as discriminatory as other competing countries pay much less tariff on exports to the US. Bangladesh as a least developed country and is supposed to enjoy zero-tariff benefit from the American market but actually pays the second highest duty for exports to the US.

Vietnam pays 8.38 per cent tax, Indonesia pays 6.36 per cent, China 3 per cent, Germany 1.16 per cent, India 2.29 per cent, Turkey 3.57 per cent and Hong Kong 1.25 per cent on export of goods to the US market. The average duty Bangladesh pays the US is more than 16 per cent and the tariff on garment products is 15.62 per cent. Of the yearly export of Bangladeshi products to the US market, 95 per cent are garment items.

Before the US scrapped Bangladesh's GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) privileges, the country enjoyed duty-free access for 97 per cent of its export items. Bangladesh paid $828 million in taxes to the US customs last year and $3.38 billion over the last five years since 2009.