U.S guides Bangladesh to regain its trade privileges

Jul 22, 2013Highlights

The Obama administration released an “action plan” on Friday (July 19) pressing Bangladesh to significantly increase the number of labor, fire and building inspectors and to improve their training.

Three weeks after announcing that U.S would suspend Bangladesh’s trade preferences, the Obama administration publicly recommended a series of steps that the Bangladesh government should take to regain its trade privileges with the United States, such as:

  • significantly increase the number of labor, fire and building inspectors and to improve their training;
  • impose stiffer penalties, including taking away export licenses, on garment factories that violate labor, fire or building safety standards;
  • create a public database of all garment factories for reporting labor, fire and building inspections, including information on violations found, penalties assessed and violations corrected, with the names of the lead inspectors;
  • establish “an effective complaint mechanism, including a hot line” for workers to anonymously report fire, building and workers’ rights violations

Besides, the Obama administration also urged Bangladesh to carry out measures to ensure the unionization progress and to publicly report information on the status and outcomes of individual unionization efforts.

Whether this series of steps that the Obama administration has released are enough to boost Bangladesh’s trade? Join our discussion and share your view with us.