US deals blow to Bangladeshi workers under the guise of helping those selfsame workers

[DainBramageStud]

[url]http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/06/201362844555276941.html[/url]

[quote]Bangladesh has criticised the decision by the United States to cut trade privileges in the wake of a deadly garment factory collapse, insisting it had taken concrete action to improve safety.

"It cannot be more shocking for the factory workers of Bangladesh that the decision to suspend Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) comes at a time when the government of Bangladesh has taken concrete and visible measures to improve factory safety and protect workers' rights," a foreign ministry statement said on Friday.

The US had announced a day earlier that it was removing duty-free trade which had been accorded to Bangladesh under GSP programme, citing dangerous conditions for workers after more than 1,100 people were killed in a factory disaster in April.

GSP is a US programme that eliminates duties on imports from 127 countries to aid their development.

The cut means importers of some Bangladesh products will now have to pay duties on them to bring them into the US and is also an embarrassment to the government which declared a series of safety initiatives after the April 24 disaster at the Rana Plaza garment factory complex, near Dhaka.[/quote]

By making manufacture less lucrative for Bangladeshi businesses, they will be forced to scale back production, thus laying off many workers. Those workers will end up on the streets, begging or becoming prostitutes or panhandlers. Meanwhile, Westerners can smugly pat themselves on the back with the knowledge that they are fighting sweatshop labor and unsafe conditions.

[Emperorconor]

I think the trade treaty is being suspended because of unsafe conditions, and then to be later brought back when they improve it seems.

[Patriarch]

[QUOTE=Emperorconor;41223630]and then to be later brought back when they improve it seems.[/QUOTE]

Never going to happen; they'll just downsize production and sell their wares elsewhere.

[Emperorconor]

[QUOTE=Patriarch;41223635]Never going to happen; they'll just downsize production and sell their wares elsewhere.[/QUOTE]

Eventually they'll probably be forced to do something once economies of scale in other countries (with safer working conditions) starts to overtake Bangladeshi industries.