Bangladesh faces question over labour rights at US hearing
Bangladesh faced a barrage of questions including trade unionism and working conditions in the factories at the fourth round of USTR hearing for continuation of GSP in Washington on Thursday. The judges of panel asked more than 150 questions during the hearing that started 9:00 in the morning in the US standard time and continued more than one and half hours, said a member of the Bangladesh delegation by phone from Washington after the hearing. “I am very hopeful that the US government will not cancel or suspend the GSP for Bangladesh as they are satisfied with our submitted documents and replies during the hearing,” Commerce Secretary Mahbub Ahmed told The Daily Star over phone after the hearing from Washington. Ahmed is now leading a 13 member delegation in the fourth round of USTR hearing in Washington for continuation of the GSP, a duty-waiver scheme of the US government from different countries introduced in 1976. “We have a follow-up meeting with the USTR official tomorrow [today] in Washington,” he said. “It seems that the seven member judges panel at the hearing are satisfied with the submission of our documents and our replies,” Ahmed said. Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and also a member of the delegation said William D Jackson, deputy assistant of the USTR for GSP chaired the judges panel with six other members from the ministries of Agriculture, Labour and other ministries concerned. The judges mainly asked questions related to trade unionism in the industrial sector, trade unionism at the factories under the Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authorities (BEPZA), working conditions and fire safety measures in the garment sector and working condition in the shrimp sector. “The judges panel asked more than 150 questions to the Bangladeshi delegation during the hearing,” Rahman told The Daily Star by phone after the hearing. The USTR also wanted to know the outcomes of the inspections by the government at the fire ravaged Tazreen Fashion, an Ashulia based garment factory where 112 workers died November 24 last year. The USTR will send the notes of the hearing to the US President Barack Obama soon and it is expected that the verdict of the hearing could be known by June, he said.
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