The United States wants Bangladesh to ensure labour rights in full, but not at the expense of or damage to the garment industry. “At the Bangladesh-US Partnership Dialogue that
began on Sunday, the US side said we “want full labour rights. But, we do not want the garment industry to be damaged,” a senior official told The Independent in the evening. Three working sessions on trade and investment, governance and development, and security were held on the first day of the partnership dialogue between Dhaka and Washington.
“Understandably, the US side spent more time on labour issues,” said the senior official.
Washington believes that if the government is strict it will be able to go through the current crises with regards to the garment industry,” he said.
They emphasised that the proposed labour law reform would be done in such a manner so that the ILO’s Better Work Programme could be introduced as soon as possible, the official added.
According to another official, the US side has agreed with Bangladesh’s proposal to involve buyers in labour rights and safety and called for a connference of the buyers to be held in Bangladesh to address the issues.
About the Rohingya issue, Washington agrees with Bangladesh that the problem lies in Myanmar and the problem must be solved there.
“They said tell us what to tell Myanmar in this regard. We will encourage them to engage with Bangladesh. Myanmar cannot build its future abonding Bangladesh,” said an official.
Meanwhile, according to a Foreign Ministry press statement, the second partnership dialogue started at the ministry with three working group discussions on: Trade & Commerce, Development & Governance and Security Cooperation.
In Trade & Commerce session Bangladesh delegation highlighted the importance of market access of Bangladeshi products to the US, prospects of US investment in Bangladesh, Energy cooperation and so on.
Issues like Bangladesh’s accession to the Millennium Challenge accounts, women empowerment, cooperation in higher studies, US development cooperation, climate change, food security, etc were highlighted in the development & governance session.
The security cooperation session discussed the possibility of expanding cooperation in the areas of counterterrorism, United Nations Peace Keeping & Peace building operation and traditional and no-traditional security cooperation. The two sides will meet tomorrow at Plenary to discuss global and regional issues.
About the meeting between the Foreign Minister and the US Under Secretary Sherman, the statement said that issues like duty free quota free access of Bangladeshi products to the US market, success of women empowerment in Bangladesh, tragic accidents of Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashions, and labour law reform were discussed among other issues.
The Foreign Minister highlighted government’s initiatives to improve the workers’ safety in Bangladesh. She mentioned that RMG is a huge sector and hoped that friendly countries would appreciate the initiatives being taken by the government to improve the situation.
Under Secretary Sherman said that Bangladesh is a leader in the RMG export and the USA does not want any damage to the industry. She further said that Bangladesh is a regional leader on issues like countering terrorism, empowering women, and enhancing regional connectivity.
As part of the Partnership Dialogue, Bangladesh and the US business delegations’ meet ‘The Private Sector Forum’ was held. It was inaugurated today where the Foreign Secretary attended as the Chief Guest. Elucidating the socio economic development and investment conducive policy of Bangladesh, the Foreign Secretary urged the US business delegation to invest more in Bangladesh and to wish for increasing trade between the two countries.
-With The Independent input
