Even as Bangladesh took part in the all-important meeting of Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (TICFA) in Dhaka recently, hoping that some encouraging development could be made towards reinstatement of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) in USA, report published by the US Senate committee on 5 March has underlined that readymade garment factories in Bangladesh are now structurally safe, but the workers inside the factories are still unsafe.
A report ‘Seven Years after Rana Plaza, Significant Challenges Remain’, prepared by the US Senate committee on foreign relations, underlined “Today, many of Bangladesh’s readymade garment factory buildings are structurally safer, but the workers inside are not.”
It may be mentioned here that Bangladesh’s Commerce Ministry officials recently met United States Trade Representative (USTR) delegation led by Assistant USTR for South and Central Asia Christopher Wilson, apprising the visiting side on the developments made towards workers and workplace safety, labour rights, etc.
The USA is a major apparel export destination for Bangladesh, where the latter benefitted from exporting around 5,000 different items tariff-free under the GSP facility, which was taken back by the former on 27 June 2013 following Rana Plaza collapse.
