In an article published on Devex on July 29, 2013 Johanna Morden explains how improving worker safety may ease US trade sanctions against Bangladesh.
On July 19, 2013 the US Government issued a Statement on Labor Rights and Factory Safety in Bangladesh. The joint statement from the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the Department of Labor, and the State Department outlines “next steps in a longstanding effort to address in a meaningful way worker safety problems in Bangladesh – the severity of which were exemplified in the tragedies of the November 2012 Tazreen Fashions factory fire and the April 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse – and, more broadly, the ability of Bangladeshi workers to exercise their full range of labor rights.”
The statement outlines a Bangladesh Action Plan 2013 addressing the following: government inspections for labor, fire and building standards; the Ready Made Garments (RMG)/knitwear sector; Export Processing Zones (EPZ); and the shrimp processing sector.
You may read the article on the Devex internet site.
You may read the Statement and Bangladesh Action Plan 2013 on the internet site of the Office of the United States Trade Representative.