The US is the single largest export destination for Bangladesh and of the total garment export from the county in a year nearly 25 percent is destined to the American markets. Last year Bangladesh exported more than $10 billion to the USA of which 90 percent was garment items. Following the international practice in compliance and labor standards is very important for doing business with the US retailers and brands. The Joe Biden Administration strengthened the US labor standards for improving the labor situation worldwide. Following the Biden’s memorandum US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken gave a remark on November 16 on standard of labor rights worldwide including Bangladesh.
What did Blinken say
In the new US’s global labor directive Blinken said workers – driving economies across the Asia-Pacific region and the world – building our infrastructure, producing and shipping the goods, caring for the loved ones, developing new industries.
Blinken said it is known that this is what workers are doing every single day around the world.
And one can see that playing out here in real time in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) because so much of the progress that the region has made over the 30 years that APEC has been in existence has been driven by workers.
“And so it’s our mission to try to ensure that workers are not only included in discussions of trade and investment and growth, but they’re there at the table at the takeoff, not just on the landing,” according to Blinken’s statement.
“Unfortunately, what we know – and you heard Kelly refer to this – is that in far too many places around this world, workers are not at the table,” Blinken also said.
Even worse, places where working people are denied a decent living, subjected to harassment and abuse, harmed – even killed – for simply standing up for their rights.
Countless brave individuals fighting for the right to organize, to work under safe and healthy conditions, to be free from forced labor, trafficking, discrimination.
“It’s pretty basic. We believe that every worker deserves to have their rights and dignity respected. That aligns with our deepest values. It also advances our interests, because it’s one of the most effective ways to promote broad-based, inclusive economic growth – which ultimately benefits American consumers, workers, businesses, investors. This is – we know it from our history, we know it from our experience – this is what lifts entire societies,” Blinken said in the remarks on November 16.
Just look at the positive effects of unions – something this group knows better than anyone in the world, he said adding the unions raise wages – for their members but also for everyone else.
Unions reduce gender and pay – gender and racial pay gaps; that makes societies fairer.
Unions increase productivity, since better working conditions mean healthier and more efficient workers.
And they help strengthen our democracies, which makes for the United States much better and more reliable partners around the world.
For all these reasons, the United States Government has been taking action to promote and defend the rights of working people – both here in the United States but also around the world.
Advocating for the rights of workers and raising labor standards – that is a central part of our diplomacy; it’s a central part of our efforts at the Department of State.
President Biden signed a new Presidential Memorandum on Advancing Worker Empowerment, Rights, and High Labor Standards Globally, he added.
And what this does is it formally recognizes that labor rights are key to our national security and to our foreign policy. This is not simply a domestic issue; it is for us a matter of national security, a matter of foreign policy. And it lays out – and I’ll address them very quickly – five lines of efforts to proactively integrate and elevate workers’ rights around the world.
Second, we will work to hold accountable those who threaten, who intimidate, who attack union leaders, labor rights defenders, labor organizations – including using things like sanctions, trade penalties, visa restrictions – all the tools in our kit. We want to be there for people like Kalpona Akter, a Bangladeshi garment worker and activist, who says that she is alive today because the U.S. embassy advocated on her behalf. When we use our voice, when we use our advocacy around the world, we can make a concrete difference in making sure that those who are trying to advance labor rights are protected and defended.
Third, we will strengthen the federal government’s capacity to advance worker rights abroad by prioritizing greater job opportunities for employees with labor expertise, training our personnel to know about worker rights, to look for and prevent abuses.
Fourth, we will work with governments and multilateral institutions like the United Nations, with the G20, to promote labor rights and standards.
This will be part of the work that we do in these international organizations, where so many of the rules are set. It happens in windowless rooms around the world, but it’s important – the standards, the norms, the rights that are established. These have a profound effect around the world. We’re going to be in there making sure that we’re advocating for labor.
Finally, we will step up our due diligence and enforcement to ensure that our own trade agreements, supply chains, protect workers, and that we’re not importing goods made with forced labor.
This is a real, concrete step toward delivering on a foreign policy that works for all of the American people. We’ll continue looking to each of you, to your colleagues in the labor movement, for your engagement, for your feedback, for your partnership.
“Because, simply put, we can’t do this effectively alone. Everyone knows the power in joining together to improve the lives of working people,” Blinken said.
What Bangladeshi Embassy in Washington says
Regarding the remarks of Blinken, Bangladesh embassy in Washington sent a letter to the commerce ministry November 20 saying that Bangladesh may be a target for trade measures so the shipment of goods to the USA may face troubled.
Though the “Memorandum” appears be a global policy applicable for all countries, there are reasons to believe that Bangladesh may be one of the targets, the letter stated.
Labor issues in Bangladesh were specifically quoted by Secretary of State and acting Secretary of Labor at the launching ceremony. As per the “Memorandum”, the U.S. foreign mission would directly interact/deal with labor issues, the policy may encourage the interested U.S. diplomats or missions to interfere in many internal or domestic issues. It seems that there are scopes for this policy to be imposed at individual, firm, or state level, if they anticipate or believe the labors’ rights are violated.
The political context of the “Memorandum” has many reasons to be alarmed. Politics is behind what is said about labor rights in the memorandum, and the U.S. would try to use the political purpose in different ways. Therefore the “Memorandum” is a signal for Bangladesh as the U.S. may take any measure as described in the memorandum in the excuse of labor issues.
The Memorandum may also have an impact on Bangladesh’s apparel sector, and it should be taken into cognizance with priority by the concerned stakeholders, the Bangladeshi embassy in Washington said in the letter.
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