Bangladesh says it meets US factory safety

BANGLADESH says its garment industry has met the US' safety and workers rights conditions and should have its preferential trade status re-instated.

BANGLADESH says it has met the conditions put forward by the United States for better safety and workers' rights in its factories that were essential to regain preferential trade status the impoverished South Asian nation lost in 2013 after two disasters killed 1,500 garment workers.

THE preferential trade status does not cover Bangladesh's influential garment industry, which helps the country earn $US25 billion ($A35.73 billion) annually and mainly exports to the US and Europe. But Dhaka has long lobbied for its garment industry to have duty-free access to the United States and the lost status was seen as a big blow to that goal.