A disaster is, as they say, too good to be wasted. Sadly several western groups have exploited the recent tragedies in the Bangladesh clothes-making industry to bamboozle their governments and global retail brands into actions that are self-serving, while attempting to disguise them as beneficial to the nation and its workers. They also divert attention from a superior response that serves Bangladesh better.
So consumers have blamed those companies that buy “cheap”, often high-fashion, garments for the unsafe conditions in Bangladesh factories because low prices allegedly lead to skimping on safety. The EU has proposed that Europe’s future trade agreements accord “a more prominent place” to health and safety considerations. The US, under pressure from the labour unions, has suspended Bangladesh from the WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION’SGeneralized System of Preferences until safety standards in factories are improved and wages are increased.
Already, responding to the refrain of the “high cost of cheap goods”, and intimidated by hundreds of thousands of protesting social-media signatures, many European brands have agreed to accept responsibility for safety lapses in Bangladeshi-owned and managed garment factories via the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh.