The European Union, a major trading block of Bangladesh, has set a very tight deadline for it to address longstanding issues concerning human rights and good governance in factories, as per media reports.
This follows the 28-member high-powered EU delegation’s visit in October last, which found the progress in addressing the issues slow.
The political and economic bloc of Europe reportedly asked Bangladesh to submit in writing by 2 January a draft roadmap for addressing the issues that include amendment of the labour law and the EPZ (export processing zone) labour law.
“Bangladesh must finalise the roadmap by February 2020,” reportedly underlined the EU letter sent to the Ministry of Commerce, adding, “We’re at a critical juncture and decisive steps are needed urgently in respect of human and labour rights upon which the EU’s Everything But Arms (EBA) preferences are conditional.”
The EU also said the country must conduct labour law reforms through tripartite consultation and with technical assistance of Rome-based ILO (International Labour Organisation).
It may be mentioned here that Bangladesh currently enjoys preferential trade benefit under the GSP (generalised system of preference) as a part of the EBA regime.
The 28-member delegation, consisting of EBA monitoring officials, had reportedly expressed serious ‘concerns’ over other issues of eliminating child labour, stopping violence against workers and ratifying the ILO convention on minimum age and protocol of 2014.
