Remarks of the US envoy

The envoy made two points that hogged headlines in newspapers yesterday: first, if the much-awaited law allowing trade union rights in the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) is not enacted by June 30, i.e. today, his government would be left with two options to exercise: withdraw the GSP facility or the export-import bank financing. Secondly, he referred to the annual US Trafficking in Persons Report, 2004 which lowered Bangladesh's placing from Tier 2 to 3 to suggest that 'if Bangladesh failed to make significant efforts to prosecute traffickers and address the complicity of government officials in trafficking', this could attract 'sanctions on non-humanitarian and non-trade sectors'.

The counterbalancing remarks could perhaps be read into "There is always room to extend the time, but not for six months, six years or 14 years like we have done before". The expression of impatience is noteworthy, though. On point of trafficking, he added that Bangladesh would be moved back to Tier 2 if the government made 'further efforts to implement actions pledged to combat human trafficking'. In other words, the US government is demanding satisfaction on containment of trafficking from Bangladesh so as not to impose certain category of sanctions prescribed by the US for global application.

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Yes, no sovereign country likes to be told by an envoy where it has failed, and what it should do, but the line of demarcation between what is regarded as normal diplomatic courtesy and that which may go down as indiscreet remarks can be very thin, and even get blurred in certain extra-ordinary circumstances. We have practically brought it on us.

Take for instance, the question of granting trade union rights to employees in exclusive industrial areas. First, there was difference of opinion between the government of Bangladesh and that of the US, with the former trying to make a special case for a waiver and the latter being insistent on the trade union rights. Bangladesh has enjoyed the GSP facility since 1993, based on its commitment to adhere to the ILO standards -- that sounds like an unassailable US perception. We allow the matter to roll for 14 years, and then we make a fresh commitment to Washington and donors in early May this year to adhere to ILO standards by June 30. Basically we agreed to allow trade unionism in industries that would opt for it. And, a law is on the anvil.

Let's face it, we have a pathology of making a commitment or agreeing to something in principle and then sitting on it until such time as we would be pushed, and rather humiliatingly given an ultimatum, which the government basically courted, to get a move on something we had consigned to back-burner. Ultimately, we would do the thing but after a long, dreary detour. Let's get a break.