U.S. to Suspend Trade Privileges With Bangladesh

Economy • June 2013 • Views: 1,631

The Obama administration on Thursday will suspend trade privileges for Bangladesh over concerns about safety problems and labor rights violations in that country’s garment industry, according to administration and Congressional officials.

The administration has come under intense pressure to suspend Bangladesh’s trade privileges after a factory building there collapsed in April, killing 1,129 workers, and after a factory fire killed 112 workers last November.

Officials with the United States Trade Representative’s office declined to comment. Administration and Congressional officials said the official announcement would come later on Thursday

More: U.S. to Suspend Trade Privileges With Bangladesh

Recent Pages by ggt (Birth Control Works):
The Nationalist's Delusion Sorry Grumpy Cat, Study Finds Dogs Are Brainier Than Cats - Neuroscience News Republican Apostate Congressman Tells Black Anti-Abortion Rights Activist 'You're Ignorant' How Many American Women Die From Causes Related To... -- ProPublica

Jump to bottom

3 comments

Dark_Falcon Thu, Jun 27, 2013 6:23:37pm

I’m not really sure this is a good idea. It’s liable to hurt increase unemployment in Bangladesh and increase the power of Radical Islam. That the suspension was pushed by ‘labor leaders’ smacks of union protectionism.

Varek Raith Thu, Jun 27, 2013 8:37:22pm

re: #1 Dark_Falcon

Nope. More like confronting private industry for their shitty records in third world countries. It’s their own fault.

The administration has come under intense pressure to suspend Bangladesh’s trade privileges after a factory building there collapsed in April, killing 1,129 workers, and after a factory fire killed 112 workers last November.

EiMitch Fri, Jun 28, 2013 10:04:09am

I’m kinda floating in the middle on trade with developing nations. Its just not right to exploit poor, desperate people with needlessly dangerous jobs that might not even pay enough for them to eat. But the reason corporations can exploit them is because, like DF said, the alternatives are unemployment or other jobs that are as bad or worse.

The solution (or at least plan A) is to pressure these countries and/or the businesses dealing with them to improve pay and work conditions. Such efforts seem to be doing some good in China. Are things improving there as fast or as much as we’d like them to? No, but when did it ever? Reforms in these matters have always been resisted by established interests everywhere on Earth, and you know it.

Then again, in cases where attempts to reform seem entirely fruitless, then I’ve got nothing to say to those who’d rather give up and pull the damn plug. Its that or keep herding people into serial killing jobs.

Auto

This page has been archived.
Comments are closed.

Jump to top

Create a PageThis is the LGF Pages posting bookmarklet. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go.
Or... you can just click this button to open the Pages posting window right away.
Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT LGF User's Guide RSS Feeds

Help support Little Green Footballs!