The American Apparel and Footwear Association, the largest trade body in the US for garment and footwear retailers, praised Bangladesh’s unified code for factory safety inspections. Following the code, the two foreign inspection agencies — Accord and Alliance — and the National Action Plan have already completed inspections of 3,660 garment factories, as of now. Stephen Lamar, the executive vice-president of AAFA, in a statement said the African garment manufacturers can learn from Bangladesh’s experience and apply the positive lessons. “We have to avoid the mistakes made in other countries — such as Bangladesh — which built up too quickly and without proper safeguards.” Lamar cited examples from Bangladesh while he was speaking on the ‘Policy Recommendations for Deepening the US-Africa Trade and Investment Relationship: Post-AGOA Trade and Investment USTR-2015-0019’ on January 28 in the US. In a recent survey, half of the AAFA members said they were buying products from Africa, according to the statement.The United States Trade Representative has recently renewed the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for the next ten years. The act allows duty-free benefits on the exports of goods from Africa to the US. Many pointed to the AGOA and its ten-year renewal as the main reason why they were in Africa and why they were looking at expanding their businesses there.As our members look at the next ten years, they are telling us about three opportunities they see for the continent,” Lamar said. Africa will be under a lot of pressure to develop its industry quickly owing to this ten-year window, he said.“We want to make sure that this is done in a responsible manner.” Among other things, this means that workers are treated fairly and with respect; internationally recognised labour rights are fully observed; factories and industrial parks are safe and compliant; and that there is proper and trained government machinery to support those workers and inspect the factories.AAFA is the national trade association representing more than 1,000 apparel, footwear and other sewn product companies and their suppliers.Its members employ four million US workers and their contribution to US retail sales is more than $360 billion in annually.
