US senators push for withdrawal of Bangladesh trade privileges
This April 24 photo shows, locals gather at the tragic sight of Rana Plaza collapse in Savar where more than a thousand people were killed. Star file photo
A prominent Democratic senator Thursday pushed for suspending duty-free privileges to Bangladesh, saying it would send a strong signal that the United States is serious about protecting workers after hundreds died in the global garment industry's worst accident.
American retailers that source products from factories in Bangladesh also came under pressure at a Senate hearing to adopt common safety standards to prevent a repeat of the April 24 collapse of Rana Plaza in Dhaka that killed 1,127 people.
"No one will want to wear a piece of clothing made in Bangladesh if it's on the blood of workers," New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a hearing on labour conditions in the South Asian nation.
After years long US government review, President Barack Obama will decide by the end of June whether to curtail Bangladesh's trade privileges. Under the Generalised System of Preferences, Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest nations, can export nearly 5,000 products duty-free to the US, its leading market.
Bangladesh is anxious to keep that benefit. While the GSP covers less than 1 percent of Bangladesh's nearly $5 billion in exports to the US and doesn't include the lucrative garment sector, it could deter American companies from investing in Bangladesh and sway a decision by European Union, which is also considering withdrawing GSP privileges. EU action could have a much bigger economic impact, as its duty-free privileges cover garments.
Bangladesh's ambassador to the US, Akramul Qader, who attended the hearing but did not testify, defended his government's record, saying it had improved worker rights and increased the minimum wage. Authorities have closed 20 unsafe factories since the Rana Plaza disaster, he said.
"We are trying our best," Qader said.
Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., cautioned against such hasty US action, warning it could ratchet up unemployment in an impoverished country.
But Celeste Drake, a trade and policy specialist at the AFL-CIO, was scathing about Bangladesh's failure to respond to a string of deadly industrial accidents.
"What's the body count that you need to really make changes?" she told lawmakers. "We are well beyond what anyone would need to see as evidence that the government's very feeble efforts and the voluntary compliance programs of the corporations simply are not working."
The AFL-CIO filed the petition seeking withdrawal of GSP benefits in 2007, which was expedited late last year amid concern from US lawmakers over deteriorating labour rights and the April 2012 killing of prominent labour activist, Aminul Islam — a case that has not been solved.
"Had there been a union representative on the ground at Rana Plaza, that tragedy would not have happened," the top US diplomat for South Asia, Robert Blake, told the hearing.
Blake noted some progress by Bangladesh in improving labour rights, including the registration of 27 new trade unions since September 2012. He said Bangladesh has given assurances its parliament will pass amendments this month to its labour law to address freedom of association and worker safety. But he added, "There's a great deal of corruption and governance challenges that still need to be met."
Eric Biel, the Labour Department's acting associate deputy undersecretary for international affairs, said there currently were less than 100 government inspectors in Bangladesh to monitor between 4,000 and 5,000 factories that employ some 4 million people, 80 percent of them women.
Democratic lawmakers criticised US retailers for not joining the more than 40 mostly European companies that have adopted a five-year, legally binding contract that requires them to help pay for fire safety and building improvements in Bangladesh. While the US companies PVH, Sean John and Abercrombie and Fitch have signed up for the accord, many other leading American brands, including the Gap, Wal-Mart, Target, and JCPenney, have not.
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