Bangladesh-U.S. trade rises 8.5 percent to $7 bln in 2015

Trade between Bangladesh and the United States rose 8.5 percent to almost $7 billion in 2015, a U.S. embassy official said on Tuesday.

Exports from Bangladesh accounted for $6 billion of the total, and 90 percent of that was clothing, said Andrea Brouillette-Rodriguez, counselor at the embassy, told a news conference ahead of a trade show beginning on Thursday. She said the United States accounted for a quarter of all Bangladesh's exports.

U.S. investment in Bangladesh rose to about $2 billion in 2015 from $1.5 billion the year before, including an investment of more than $1 billion by the energy firm Chevron, a Bangladeshi official said.

Bangladesh's exports include textile and clothing products, shrimps, tea and golf club shafts, while it imports raw cotton, chemicals, machinery and equipment and pharmaceuticals.

Designated as a "Least Developed Country", Bangladesh received trade benefits under the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences, but the facility has been suspended since June 2013, following the death of more than 1,100 garment workers in the collapse of the Rana Plaza commercial building in Dhaka.