US: Suspend Bangladesh preferences, Obama told By Richard Woodard | 26 June 2013 President Obama should suspend US trade preferences for Bangladesh until the country makes “marked progress” on worker safety, according to nine Senators. In a letter to the President, the nine, mostly Democrats, also called on him to continue outreach to the business community so that it can use its global leverage to demand safer worker conditions in countries like Bangladesh. The plea comes in the wake of April’s Rana Plaza garment factory collapse, in which more than 1,100 people died and many more were maimed or seriously injured. However, removing Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) benefits to Bangladesh would have little impact on apparel as the vast majority of products do not enjoy GSP relief - but politicians believe it would send a powerful signal to the Bangladeshi government and business leaders in the country. “President Obama must do everything in his power to prevent tragedies like the Bangladesh factory collapse from happening again,” said Sherrod Brown, one of the Senators. “For several years, labour unions and workers rights groups have documented safety and workers rights violations in Bangladesh, which went unheeded.” “It is essential to stop the ‘race to the bottom’ among clothing brands, hunting for the cheapest place to make clothing without regard to the cost in human life or the cost to American jobs,” added another of the group, Tom Harkin. “Until workplaces in Bangladesh are safer, until their workers are making more than a pittance, until workers are able to effectively organise and speak out against fundamentally abusive work practices, then our government should not give trade preferences to any products from Bangladesh.”
Posted on: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 06:01:43 +0000
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