Bangladesh says it meets US factory safety conditions
Source: AP
By JULHAS ALAM
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh said it has met the conditions put forward by the United States for better safety and workers' rights in its factories that were essential to regain preferential trade status the impoverished South Asian nation lost in 2013 after two disasters killed 1,500 garment workers.
The preferential trade status does not cover Bangladesh's influential garment industry, which helps the country earn $25 billion annually and mainly exports to the United States and Europe. But Dhaka has long lobbied for its garment industry to have duty-free access to the United States and the lost status was seen as a big blow to that goal.
The government said in its statement late Tuesday that all of the 16 conditions set by the U.S. have been met. A delegation of the U.S. Trade Representative's office is visiting Bangladesh to review improvements in safety standards at factories and changes to legal documents allowing for wider workers' rights.
The conditions are needed to regain the Generalized System of Preferences benefit under which the U.S. allows imports of some 5,000 goods from 122 of the world's poorest countries with low- or zero-tariff benefits.
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FILE - In this Friday, June 14, 2013 file photo, Bangladeshi Maksuda holds a picture of her son Mehedi who was a garment worker and is missing following the collapse of the Rana Plaza building as she poses next to the rubble in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. A delegation of the U.S. Trade Representative’s office is on a five-day visit to Bangladesh ending Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015, to see the improvement of safety standards at factory sites and changes to legal documents allowing for wider workers’ rights, key conditions for regaining the Generalized System of Preferences facility under which the United States allows imports of more than 5,000 goods from 122 of the world’s poorest countries with low or zero-tariff benefits. The trade benefit was withdrawn after the collapse of Rana Plaza, a building complex housing five garment factories outside the capital, Dhaka in 2013. The garment industry is crucial to Bangladesh’s economy as it employs about 4 million workers, mostly rural women, and many other sectors including banks are heavily dependent on it. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File)
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c2ad218be9a84c3ea0e88c192d7576e1/bangladesh-says-it-meets-us-factory-safety-conditions
Read this again: The preferential trade status does not cover Bangladesh's influential garment industry, which helps the country earn $25 billion annually and mainly exports to the United States and Europe.
