The Obama administration may strip Bangladesh of import breaks following deadly accidents in the country’s textile industry, another sign of the pressure building on Bangladesh to improve labour conditions. The move was prompted partly by a fire late last year that killed 112 people and gained momentum after the recent factory collapse that claimed more than 1,100 lives, according to a Washington Post report.
A delegation of top Bangladeshi officials, now in Washington, is lobbying to retain the tariff breaks and to convince US leaders in USTR, Labor and the State Department with a message that they are serious about overhauling local labor laws, prosecuting crimes against labor leaders and making other long-sought changes.
“We reached the conclusion that things were not moving forward, and we needed to do something dramatic,” said a US trade official, who was not authorised to speak for the record.
However, leaders of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said they do not want to think anything negative on GSP issue though the report could indicate either GSP or duty-free and quota free access to US market.
“We’re not aware of anything negative on the GSP issue. We need to wait for getting government version,” BGMEA first vice president Nasiruddin Ahmed Chowdhury told UNB on Friday night.
Talking to this correspondent, former BGMEA first vice president M Nasiruddin Chowdhury said the top government officials are already in Washington. “We didn’t receive any negative news on GSP issue yet.”
He said they are still hopeful of GSP retention and mentioned that they will wait until the meeting between Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni scheduled to be held in Washington tonight.
“We don’t expect anything negative. Former BGMEA president Abdus Salam Murshedy said there were lots of efforts to retain the GSP facility. “We desire its continuation.”
He said though RMG is out of GSP facility in the US market but it will have adverse impact on other export destinations, especially in the EU. “Still, we hope something will come out.”
Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni, now in Washington, will sit in a meeting tonight (Friday night) with US Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss various bilateral issues, including the much-debated GSP facility.
A very small amount of around 0.6 percent (0.54 percent} of Bangladesh’s total exports of US$4.87 billion to the US now enjoy duty-free status under the GSP facilities.
The GSP (Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme grants duty-free treatment to designated eligible articles that are imported from designated beneficiary developing countries.
Once granted, GSP benefits may be withdrawn, suspended, or limited by the US President with respect to any article or with respect to any country.
Business, labor and advocacy groups are all struggling over how to respond to the April 24 incident — the worst-ever in the textile industry but an event that could produce meaningful change in a nation on its way to becoming the world’s largest garment exporter.
A group of mostly European nations has signed on to a binding inspection program. US firms such as Wal-Mart have declined, but political backlash may be building.
On Thursday, a group of senators wrote to major US retailers urging them to reconsider, and the Obama administration is also debating how to get American firms more constructively engaged.
Such agencies as the Department of Labor and the Office of the US Trade Representative, meanwhile, are stepping up their efforts. Labor officials have agreed to fund a program to improve the Bangladeshi government’s currently weak — and some say corruption-ridden — factory inspection system.
USTR, meanwhile, is moving forward with plans to exclude Bangladesh from import tax breaks given to goods from developing countries. US officials said the decision was made last fall to begin pressuring Bangladesh for improvement in its labor conditions, and the process intensified after the recent incidents.
Requests by labor groups to exclude Bangladesh from tariff breaks have been pending for several years, but USTR said in documents published in the federal register that “the lack of progress by the government of Bangladesh in addressing worker rights issues . . . warrants consideration of possible withdrawal” of benefits.
The November fire and last month’s collapse of the Rana Plaza textile center brought into sharp relief one of the core moral questions of globalisation: What obligation do the nations that benefit from low-cost goods made in places like Bangladesh have to ensure a safe environment and basic rights for workers?
It also highlights the challenge of policing a global economy in which developing nations now absorb massive outside investment each year and corporations rely on ever-more diffuse and distant supply chains to source their goods. UNB
