I know, I’m sorry, I keep writing about Bangladesh at the moment. But the list of silly responses to the recent disaster and tragedy seems to keep growing. Now we’ve news that the European Union itself might restrict access to the European market for clothes made in Bangladesh. Which is the worst thing anyone could possibly do if they are trying to improve conditions for the workers there.
Here’s the muttered proposal:
The European Union, which gives preferential access to Bangladeshi garments, had threatened punitive measures in order to press Dhaka to improve worker safety standards after the collapse of the illegally built factory on April 24.
The reason that preferential access is granted is because we all know that the country is dirt poor. And further, that export led industrialisation is the only way to get out of that utter destitution.
However, there are always those who like to restrict trade (often enough, those who manufacture the same items within the EU) who will happily take any opportunity to limit the competition they face. And that’s what the political driver is here. Within EU manufacturers willingly arguing their own interests, using the disaster as the hook to hang the tale on.
As Tim Harford at the FT argues, this is just the wrong way to go about things:
If the EU does impose some sort of sanction on the country, the human cost is likely to be far higher than that of Rana Plaza. Bangladesh has been a development success story; poverty is high but falling fast. Literacy and life expectancy are improving. That appalling under-five mortality rate of 4.6 per cent used to be far worse – 20 years ago, it was 12 per cent. When we see the pictures of the Rana Plaza wreckage, it’s easy to imagine a backdrop of stagnation, complacency and despair in which nothing ever changes, no matter how awful the tragedy. But the true context is a country making rapid improvements in nutrition, health, education and women’s employment. If the EU’s threat galvanises improvements in wages, working conditions and building standards – all of which Bangladesh can afford – then good. But if the threat were to be carried out, that would be a disaster, albeit one that will not be televised.
It is exactly that export led industrialisation that has been making things better in Bangladesh these past 15 to 20 years. To throw it into reverse will lead to conditions in the country, and in those factories, worsening, not getting better. Which is a pretty good reason not to ban the imports from the country, don’t you think?
Source: Forbes
