Bangladesh's Duty-free Access

12 US lawmakers urge review
Protests in South Carolina

Agencies

Twelve Democratic lawmakers of the United States yesterday urged a quick review of the duty-free access granted to many products from Bangladesh, voicing alarm over labour conditions after a fire at Tazreen Fashions Ltd killed 112 workers.

The lawmakers, many of whom serve on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said Bangladesh appeared to be "going in the opposite direction" despite promises of labour reforms.

"We are seriously concerned about the deterioration of working conditions and worker rights in Bangladesh," said the letter to US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

"The Tazreen fire is yet another wake-up call that these kinds of concerns must be vigorously addressed," it said.

Signatories included Representative Joe Crowley, founder of a congressional caucus on Bangladesh, and Representative Sandy Levin, the ranking member of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party on the Ways and Means Committee.

A fire on the night of November 24 tore through the Tazreen Fashion -- which supplied clothes for retailers including Walmart -- killing mostly female workers after supervisors initially prevented them from leaving.

The lawmakers asked the US Trade Representative's office to accelerate its review of whether Bangladesh should remain part of the Generalised System of Preferences, through which the United States offers duty-free access for up to 5,000 products from developing countries that meet labour standards.

The office has been assessing Bangladesh's eligibility after complaints about its record from the AFL-CIO, the largest US labour union confederation, reports AFP.

However, the Generalised System of Preferences does not offer duty-free access for textiles, which account for up to 80 percent of Bangladesh's exports.

Meanwhile in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, about 30 protesters chanting "From US to Bangladesh, no more Walmart factory deaths" halted traffic outside the Wando Terminal yesterday morning.

Police had to divert incoming trucks from Long Point Road and monitored the situation from across the street.

"You won't see it in the containers, but there is blood and smoke and fire on those clothes because of the way they were produced," said George Hopkins, spokesperson for the protesters.

"The cost of human lives is unacceptable. This is the high price of cheap clothes for Americans."

Allison Skipper of South Carolina Ports Authority said she expected operations to return to normal sooner than later despite the "peaceful demonstration by an activist group presumably about imported garments from a factory in Bangladesh where workers died in a fire."

The picketing group, including some longshoreman, told ABC News 4 reporter Stefanie Bainum that they were picketing over a Walmart Factory Fire in Bangladesh in which over a hundred people died.

According to fliers from the protesters, rallying behind the hashtag, #BlockTheBoat, they wanted to "establish a picket of resistance to the landing of the cargo aboard the Carolina Maersk, a containership bringing clothing manufactured at the factory where 112 garment workers were burned to death in Bangladesh to Charleston."

"Walmart is the largest employer of Bangladesh garment workers," said Hopkins.

"They have a responsibility to see that the factories in which these workers make these clothes are safe and healthy. They have been repeatedly asked to participate in a comprehensive fire protection programme. They have refused. This is not the first fire in which workers have died in garment factories in Bangladesh and it probably won't be the last unless something changes which is why we're here today."

More protests are scheduled for today and tomorrow at the Wando Crossing Walmart in Mount Pleasant, the North Charleston Walmart on Rivers Ave, and the West Ashley Walmart on West Ashley Circle.

"We want Walmart to compensate the families of these victims," said Hopkins. “We want them to sign on to this comprehensive fire safety code. We want them to pay their employees living wages, allow them to unionise and we also want them to take responsibility for the health and safety conditions in their factories where their clothes are made."

Source: The Daily Star, Dhaka, 21 December 2012; link: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=262037