On Saturday, a delegation from the office of the United States Trade Representatives (USTR) is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka to review the implementation status of the conditions for Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) facilities.
On June 27 last year, Bangladesh’s GSP status was suspended.
US President Barack Obama earlier said the trade facility had been suspended because Bangladesh had not taken steps to afford internationally-recognized worker rights to employees, especially those working in the RMG sector.
Last month, the US government renewed GSP trade facilities for 122 nations but Bangladesh was excluded from the list. The Bangladesh government has hastened to complete the work outlined by the Sustainability Compact and the GSP Action Plan so it can make a case for a review of its eligibility for GSP trade facilities.
Senior Commerce Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon said on Thursday that, Bangladesh is all set to demonstrate compliance with the conditions outlined by the United States for the facility.
During a recent meeting with the US ambassador at the Commerce Ministry, Tofail said that the US assistant trade representative would visit Bangladesh in mid-September to see first-hand the progress made by Bangladesh in the field of workers’ safety and rights.
Michael J Delaney, assistant trade representative for South and Central Asia, will lead the delegation from September 19 to 23 that will look for evidence of the transformation of Bangladesh’s RMG sector.
He will be accompanied by USTR director for labor affairs Michael O’Donovan, Bruce Levine, office director of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the US Department of State and Jennifer Goodyear, international relations officer at the International Labor Affairs Bureau at the US Department of Labor.
During the visit, the delegation is scheduled to hold meetings with government officials, employers, workers, trade unions, the International Labor Organization, the Alliance on Bangladesh Worker Safety, the Accord for Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and other organizations, according to the US Embassy in Dhaka.
They plan to travel to Chittagong to visit the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones’ Authority, representatives from the shrimp processing sector and other local organizations.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said the country had completed the necessary inspection and identified less than 2% of factories as vulnerable – a rate lower than that in developed countries.
Factory workers are now allowed to form trade unions which are being reflected in the number of new trade union registrations, which stood at 464 as of last month.
“Through the publication of the gazette of the Labor Act, all of the conditions outlined by the US government for the restoration of GSP have been implemented,” Tofail Ahmed said.
“We have done our job and it is now up to the US government whether or not they will restore the GSP,” he added.
The delegation seeks to learn more regarding efforts made by the Bangladeshi government and other Bangladeshi actors in support of the Sustainability Compact and the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Action Plan, sources said.
Senior Labor and Employment Secretary Mikail Shipar on Thursday said the Labor Ministry had attended to all of the issues, including a publicly accessible database, ensuring rights to organization and publishing the rules of the Labor Act, 2013. The act is aimed at safeguarding workers’ rights.
“After implementing the conditions, the government is now monitoring progress,” said Shipar. “It is an ongoing process.”
Source: Ittefaq