The Labour Ministry received a letter from the US State Department last week which urges Bangladesh Government to amend the country’s labour law.
Also at a meeting with Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Dipu Moni on Saturday in Washington, the US Secretary of State John Kerry insisted that Bangladesh should immediately improve its labour law.
The State Department has also sought updates on investigation into the country’s deadliest factory collapse and fire in Tazreen Fashions.
The country which buys the largest amount of Bangladeshi garments wants to see the trial of those responsible for the incidents that killed hundreds of workers.
Labour Ministry has taken the call seriously and already started working to make sure that labour rights are protected effectively, said official sources.
The email was forwarded instantly to commerce ministry to take necessary steps, said the sources.
On the condition of anonymity, a highly placed source in commerce ministry said the US has added a condition of signing Ticfa with it to allow Bangladesh retaining GSP facility.
US state department latter immediately sent to the commerce ministry to take necessary measures on these issues, labour ministry source told Dhaka Tribune.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Bangladesh, Dan W Mozena called on Commerce Minister GM Quader yesterday at the latter’s secretariat office to discuss the issue.
The outcome of discussion was not disclosed immediately.
Bangladesh commerce ministry is currently facing two challenges- ensuring improvement of labour standards in factories and making decision on signing Ticfa with the US.
Although the commerce minister has ruled out facing any pressure to sign Ticfa, which he believes would benefit Bangladesh more, a perception among ministry officials has grown that the US will continue GSP facility to Bangladesh after Ticfa is signed.
Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (Ticfa) was first proposed by the US about a decade ago.
But the then government didn’t agree to sign the deal disputing some clauses on maintain labour and environment standards, intellectual property rights (IPR) obligations and governance issues.
The USA has signed such deals with a number of countries which are relatively small and developing economies. The emerging economies like Argentina, Brazil, China and India do not have such agreements with the USA. Only few developed countries like Iceland, Switzerland and New Zealand have signed Ticfa with the US.