Africa’s textile and apparel exports to the United States could quadruple to $4 billion over the next decade through an extended duty-free trade treaty, a US official said on Wednesday.The trade program known as the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), currently before American lawmakers, provides eligible sub-Saharan countries duty-free access to the world’s top apparel market, giving Africa a competitive edge over suppliers such as Bangladesh and Vietnam.The US administration has already called for Congress to renew the program well ahead of its expiry date of Sept. 30, 2015. The program, in which about 40 African countries are eligible to take part, could be extended another 10 years.”Ten years is a game-changer,” said Gail Strickler, assistant United States trade representative for textiles and apparel, adding the extension could be passed “imminently”.”Africa should be able to quadruple its exports, literally without a lot of trouble, creating another 500,000 new jobs.”Established in 2000, AGOA has already been renewed past its original 2008 expiry date.Last year, US clothing imports from sub-Saharan countries reached $986 million, up nearly six percent from 2013, as countries such as Lesotho, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania participated in the program.Analysts said Africa had lower labour costs and abundant raw materials, such as top-quality cotton from Uganda, but congested ports, a poor road network, lack of skills and old technology were a hindrance.While the costs may be rising in Asia, they are still way more competitive than Africa, especially on productivity, quality and product range,” said Joseph Nyagari, an official at the Nairobi-based African Cotton and Textile Industries Federation.African officials and Asian firms with factories in Africa welcomed AGOA’s extension, saying investment would follow.Kelebone Leisanyane, chief executive of the Lesotho National Development Corporation, said the land-locked southern African nation, a top exporter under AGOA, plans two new fabric mills.”I think for Lesotho AGOA is critical and its renewal means the survival of many families, with around 35,000 workers in the apparel and textile industry,” he told Reuters.Taiwanese firm New Wide Garment, which has six factories in Kenya and one each in Lesotho and Ethiopia, also aims to expand.”Now with a ten-year extension it means most of the investors will jump into Africa. We intend expanding more in Africa,” Heman Boodia, its Africa vice president told Reuters.

India will provide 50 acres of land in Gujarat to Bangladeshi businessmen to build a warehouse from which apparel items can be shipped directly to retail shops across India.

The development comes after a team of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association led by its President Atiqul Islam placed the demand to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent visit to Dhaka.

Modi discussed the matter with his policymakers upon returning to New Delhi and decided to provide the land.

The move will help garment makers meet their target of exporting $1 billion worth of products to India in the next three years.

The deputy Indian high commissioner in Dhaka has now sought a proposal from the BGMEA.

Islam said the proposal will be submitted to the Indian high commissioner on Sunday.

Bangladesh is one of the ‘worst’ places in the world to work, where workers’ rights are not guaranteed, according to a global survey.

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), in a survey launched on Wednesday, ranks Bangladesh, along with 27 other countries, on the fifth category–a sign of “no guarantee of rights”.

It, however, referred to the readymade garment sector, where physical force, sexual intimidation and threats of physical assault and dismissal are often used to stop workers from organising.

China, India, Malaysia, Belarus, Cambodia, Turkey, Pakistan and Qatar are other countries ranked on the same category of worst countries for workers in the world.

“While the legislation may spell out certain rights, workers have collectively no access to these rights and are therefore exposed to autocratic regimes and unfair labour practices,” the report reads about the countries that ranked at five.

The 2015 ITUC’s Global Rights Index, which ranked 141 countries on 1-5 categories against 97 internationally-recognised indicators, showed how well they were protecting employment rights such as freedom of association, collective bargaining and the rights to strike, was published for the second time.

The ITUC had been collecting data on abuse of trade union rights around the world for the past 30 years. Now for the second time the ITUC Global Rights Index presents verified information from the last 12 months so that every government and business can see how their laws and supply chains have deteriorated or improved.

The key findings of the ITUC are: Out of a total of 141 countries, the number where workers faced arbitrary arrest and detention increased from 35 to 44, and included countries such as Spain and Brazil.

In almost 60 per cent of countries, certain types of workers are excluded from their fundamental labour rights and unionists were murdered in 11 countries, one up from last year, including 22 deaths in Colombia alone, it revealed.

Seventy per cent of countries have workers with no right to strike while two thirds of countries deny workers collective bargaining rights.

The 2015 ITUC Global Index found more than half of countries in the survey deny workers access to the rule of law.

Nine countries including Syria, Central African Republic and Palestine scored even worse at 5+. This rating linked to dysfunctional legislations as a result of internal conflict and/or military occupation. Workers in those countries have equally limited rights as workers with the rating five.

Systematic violations of rights have been reported in 27 countries including Poland and the USA and the ITUC ranked them 4th.

Regular violations of rights have been found in 36 countries including Israel and Australia and they ranked 3rd.

The number of second ranking countries is 26 including Japan and Ireland where rights are violated repeatedly, according to the index.

There are 16 countries including Finland and Uruguay ranked top. Irregular violations of rights are found there. Collective labour rights are generally guaranteed, workers can freely associate and defend their rights collectively. Violations against workers are not absent but not occur on a regular basis.

“Workers in the Gulf States where the draconian ‘kafala’ system is widespread endure many of the violations which make the Middle East and North Africa the world’s worst region for fundamental rights at work,” said ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow is a statement.

The ten worst countries for working people are Belarus, China, Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland and United Arab Emirates, according to the Index, the statement added.

Differing with Bangladesh’s ranking, Abdus Salam Murshedy former president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said the initiative in cooperation with International Labour Organisation (ILO), Accord and Alliance ongoing in the country’s RMG sector to improve the workplace and safety issues.

“During the last one year, more than 200 trade unions got registered in the garment sector while 128 registered during the last thirty years,” he said.

“How justified is it to evaluate a large sector like RMG only by five to six incidents?” he questioned.

The export of woven garments to the US registered a negative growth in the first 10 months of the current financial year though the export earnings from the market started to rebound from the beginning of this calendar year. Exporters and analysts said there were various reasons for the negative growth that included decreasing demand for the items on compliance issue, reluctance of exporters for high duty in the market and grabbing market share by the competing countries. The export of woven garments to the US market in the July-April period of the FY 2014-15 decreased by 1.62 per cent to $3.18 billion from $3.23 billion in the same period of the FY 2013-14, according to Export Promotion Bureau data. The export of knitwear to the market, however, grew by 5.85 per cent to $1.03 billion in the period. Following the Rana Plaza building collapse a number of US buyers shifted orders from Bangladesh and good number of buyers decreased their volume of orders due to safety concern, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice-president Shahidullah Azim told New Age. ‘At the same time, some of our competing countries like Vietnam and India gained their capacities in the market and Bangladesh lost its space,’ he said. On the other hand, a number of exporters were looking for the alternative markets in the period and expressed their unwillingness to export to the US market due to higher duty, Azim said. A recent report launched by the Centre for Policy Dialogue stated that in the first 10 months of the FY15, the growth of export earnings was only 2.6 per cent and such performance was realised amid a number of challenges the export sector faced that included a violent and uncertain political environment, uneven developments in major export destination, falling global commodity prices and the volatile exchange rate of the euro. The report said that the export of woven garments was shifting from the US market to the EU market in recent years. During the first 10 months of the FY15, the export of woven products to the United States declined by 1.6 per cent, while a relatively strong growth rate of 7 per cent was attained in the EU market, the report said. The CPD, a local think-tank, said that this was perhaps a sign that the woven exporters in Bangladesh were gradually diverting products from the US market to the EU market due to the relaxation of the rules of origin requirement in the generalised system of preferences. Since the relaxation of the rules of origin the export of woven products has been on the rise to the European Union market. The report mentioned that the US imposed high customs duty on imports of woven products and the US government charged customs duty of $392 million on imports of woven products from Bangladesh in 2014. Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of the Exporters Association of Bangladesh, said that Bangladesh had been facing many type of challenges including compliance, deprecation of the euro, appreciation of the local currency and rising cost for doing business. These things have put pressure on the efficiency of the country’s readymade garment sector and competitor countries have grabbed the market share, he said. Salam said, ‘The key problem for the garment sector is that our competitive edge is doing down.’ According to the CPD statistic, to some extent Vietnam, India, Honduras and El Salvador registered higher growth in exporting woven products to the US in the first 10 months of the FY15. Bangladesh’s export earnings from mens/boys shirts in the July-April period of the FY15 registered 6 per cent growth while Vietnam registered 13 per cent growth. In exporting boys’ trousers and shorts of synthetic fibres, Bangladesh posted 9.40 per cent negative growth while Vietnam registered 5.4 per cent, Honduras 18.80 per cent and El Salvador 33.30 per cent growth.

Bangladeshi RMG producers are now facing stiff competition to penetrate into the market of the United States in the wake of the production cost hike and losing competiveness. Yet, export of Bangladeshi RMG products to the US market has grown by 7% in April 2015, to US$1.8bn, a good rise from 2.3% decline in 2014, according to data recently released by OTEXA. Besides, overall export to the US market also seen a 7.24% gain to $1.9bn. RMG manufacturers attributed production, political unrest and safety inspection launched by the global retailers’ platforms the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. Myanmar, the emerging exporter of the RMG products to US market has posted a 123% growth to more than $8m in the first four months of this year. RMG export to the US market from Vietnam also increased by 16.5% to $799m while India’s export growth grew by 9.82% to $1.4bn. Meanwhile, China, the global leader of apparel manufacturing, lost its share in the US market, which was captured by Vietnam, Bangladesh and India in recent times. China’s export to the US market rose by over 1%, which is a positive sign for Bangladesh as it was expected that this share would be shifted to Bangladesh from Chaina. “As the fate of Bangladesh RMG industry is hanging in the balance, our competitors are taking the advantage of it,” BGMEA President MdAtiqulIslam told the Dhaka Tribune. Islam noted that productivity of Bangladeshi workers was lower than that of the competitors and devaluation of euros against dollars and political unrest also worked as catalysts to lower the growth. “On the other hand, compliance has increased production cost, which lead us to lose competitiveness in the global market,” said Islam. For gaining competitiveness and to overcome the existing hurdles, the BGMEA chief urged the government to provide policy support including lowering tax at source. “Apart from political unrest, compliance issue including installation of fire safety equipment and carry out the remediation cast shadow on the production cost leading challenging in competitiveness and the most challenge for the sector is to lose competitiveness,’’Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of Bangladesh Exporters Association (EAB), told the Dhaka Tribune. Though production cost has risen but the product price has not increased, which also makes the sector less competitive and lose market share, he said. “We are introducing production engineering and automation to reduce production cost and enhance productivity to tackle the situation.” He also urged the government to provide policy support to reduce production cost.

The Rana Plaza Coordination Committee will complete all payments to the victims of the nation’s worst industrial disaster in two weeks, as the panel has received the required amount — $30 million — from retailers.We are ready to finish paying the compensation money to the Rana Plaza victims as we have received the required $30 million,” Srinivas B Reddy, country director for International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Bangladesh, said in an interview with The Daily Star yesterday.“We have already disbursed 70 percent of the claims to the victims through bank accounts of Dutch Bangla Bank.”Reddy is the chairman of the committee, which was formed two years ago after the accident to settle the compensation claims, with government representatives, garment exporters, retailers and trade union leaders.The committee has already disbursed $16.4 million of the fund among 2,889 claimants, except 668 victims who were directly awarded compensation by British retailer Primark, he said.Primark made 95 percent of the payment to the victims and families of New Wave Bottom, a garment factory that was housed on the second floor of Rana Plaza and made garment items for the British retailer.Primark is contributing $14 million to the $30 million fund, which includes $11 million in long-term payments, $2 million in short-term aid and a donation of $1 million to help other victims, according to its website.More than $2.48 million came from the prime minister’s welfare fund, said Reddy.The committee has followed ILO Convention 121, which deals with payment for industrial accidents, in determining the amount of payment to the victims, Reddy added.It took more than two years to disburse the fund as the committee had to sort out the new addresses and other details of a large number of workers, said Reddy. “The ILO is now relieved as the fund has been managed.”In determining compensation to the workers, the average salary of the victims has been fixed at Tk 5,300, the minimum wage for the garment workers, he added.“In some cases, the amount of compensation varied as some victims came up with their last pay slips; those who used to get higher salaries received higher amounts.”The ILO has been conducting a feasibility study to launch the National Employment Injury Insurance Programme to bring all factory workers under insurance coverage, he said.The insurance, which will be mandatory for all factories, will cover health, unfortunate death and other workplace accidents; and factory owners will need to pay less than Tk 60 as premium for each worker every month, he added.

Bangladesh economy is ranked 44th globally as per the GDP based on current prices of 2015, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said, citing World Bank and IMF reports. After the ECNEC meeting on Tuesday, the planning minister at a press briefing also said Bangladesh’s GDP size now stands at $205.3 billion on the basis of current prices. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting held at NEC conference room. “For the last six years, we’ve been constantly holding a GDP growth rate over 6 percent, which is a great achievement. We have to advance our economy by bringing about structural change through proper management with whatever resources we have,” a meeting source quoted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as saying. “Everyone has a contribution to this tremendous economic achievement. I hope that this trend of the country’s economic progress will continue,” the premier added. Although Bangladesh is at 44th place, it is still ahead of the countries like Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Portugal, Qatar, New Zealand and Peru as per GDP based on the current prices. However, as per GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP), Bangladesh has upgraded its position at 33 with a GDP size of $ 572.4 billion ahead of Algeria, Vietnam, Iraq, Venezuela, Belgium and Switzerland. According to the GDP based on current prices of 2013, Bangladesh’s economy was at the 58th place with a GDP size of $149,990 million. However, the US was at the top with $ 16,768,100 million while Vietnam was at the 57th position with $1,71,390 million. As per GDP based on current prices of 2015, the US is holding the first position with a GDP size of $18,124.70 billion followed by China with a GDP size of $11,211.90 billion, Japan with a GDP size of $4,210.40 billion, Germany with a GDP size of $3,413.50 billion and United Kingdom with a GDP size of $2,853.40 billion. However, as per the GDP based on purchasing power parity of 2013, the position of Bangladesh in global economic arena was at 36 with GDP size of $461,644 million ahead of Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, Ukraine, Hong Kong and Qatar.

The country’s trade deficit is set to cross the record of $9.32 billion in the outgoing financial year 2014-15 as the gap already stood $8.49 billion in the first 10 months due to a drop in export growth against higher import. According to Bangladesh Bank data, the country registered a record gap in import payments and exports earning of $9.32 billion in the FY12 after which the deficit decreased to $7 billion and $6.80 billion respectively in the FY13 and the FY14. ‘The trade gap in the first nine months [July-March] was $7.14 billion which soared to $8.49 million July-April. With the current trend, the trade deficit will easily cross the record set in the FY12 at the end of the current fiscal year,’ said a BB official, while talking to New Age. The trade deficit in July-April of the current fiscal year is 54.18 per cent higher than that of $5.5 billion in the corresponding period of the FY14. Officials of Bangladesh Bank said falling export growth of readymade garment, the main export product of the country, dented the overall earnings in July-April of the FY15 while import registered an increased trend during the period. The export earnings registered a 2.67-per cent growth in the first 10 months of the FY15 against 13.57 per cent growth in the same period of FY14. The export earnings stood at $24.96 billion in July-April of the FY15 while it was $24.31 billion during the same period of the FY14. The BB data showed that RMG exports from Bangladesh in the July-April period of the FY15 rose by 3.18 per cent compared with that of 15.39 per cent during the same period a financial year ago. The country’s export earnings from the RMG sector stood at $20.56 billion in the first 10 months of the FY15 against the last year export value of $19.97 billion. The overall imports registered a 12.19-per cent growth in the first 10 months of the FY15 compared with that of 10.54 per cent growth in the corresponding period of the FY14. The import payment stood at $33.46 billion in July-April of the FY15 and it was $29.82 billion in the same period of the FY14. The BB official said that the decreased growth in export earnings had put an adverse impact on the country’s trade account. The lower export growth in the recent period has already created a worrisome situation for the country’s business sector, he said. The higher import growth in the period was apparently good for the industrial sector, but the trend also raised suspicion of money laundering due to a lower private sector credit growth in recent months, he said. He said, ‘The import growth of capital machinery was much higher than that of industrial raw materials, but the businesspeople took little initiative to expand their business in the period due to political crisis.’ He said importers might now be making over-invoicing to launder money abroad as the recent higher import growth had not put any major positive impact on the industrial sector. The BB data showed that the current account balance registered a deficit amount of $1.64 billion in the first 10 months of the FY15 against a surplus amount of $1.53 billion during the same period a year ago. The net foreign direct investment increased by 5.02 per cent to $1.25 billion in the first 10 months of the FY15 from that of $1.19 billion in the same period of the FY14. The BB data, however, showed that the financial account of the country’s balance of payments decreased to $601 million in the first 10 month of the FY15 from $719 million during the same period of the FY14. The financial account includes foreign direct investment, portfolio investment, and medium- and long-term loans. The country’s overall balance decreased by 23.52 per cent to $3.29 billion in the first 10 months of the FY15 against $4.30 billion during the same period of the FY14 due to its weak position in the current account balance.

Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund, formed to compensate the victims and the family members of the deadliest factory disaster that killed 1,135 workers, reached its US$30m target needed to pay full-fledged compensation. “The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) is delighted to announce a major campaign victory with the confirmation Donors Trust Fund has finally met its target of $30m, following a large anonymous donation,” said a CCC statement yesterday. Now, the victims of the Rana Plaza factory collapse are going to finally receive full compensation for the loss of income and medical care, said the statement. “This is a huge victory–but it’s been too long in the making,” said Ineke Zeldenrust of the Clean Clothes Campaign. The brands with a collective annual profit of over $20bn took two years and significant public pressure to come up with a mere $30m is an indictment of the voluntary nature of social responsibility, said Zeldenrust. Zeldenrust said: This day has been long in coming. Now that all the families impacted by this disaster will finally receive all the money they are owed, they can finally focus on rebuilding their lives. This is a remarkable moment for justice. The Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund was set up by the ILO in January 2014 to collect funds to pay awards designed to cover loss of income and medical costs suffered by the Rana Plaza victims and their families. The Clean Clothes Campaign will continue to support the Rana Plaza victims who are pursuing further payments in recognition of the pain and suffering inflicted upon them as a result of corporate and institutional negligence, it added. The Rana Plaza Coordination Committee also paid Tk76 crore, which is 70% of the compensation to the injured and the family members of deceased and missing workers. Prime Minister Skeikh Hasina has so far distributed over Tk15 crore as compensation to 976 deceased victims’ family while over Tk4 crore to 38 severely injured victims. On April 24 in 2013, Rana Plaza, which housed five garment factories, a shopping complex at Savar, collapsed, killing 1,135 workers and injuring over 2,500 workers.

G7 leaders meeting in Bavaria have agreed to establish a new fund to help improve the global supply chain in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh. The fund would help provide compensation in the event of further similar disasters and provide cash to improve fire inspection and building safety regulations, reports the Guardian. The G7 will recommend that western consumers have access to apps that better inform them about whether clothes they intend to buy were manufactured in decent working conditions. It has take more than two years for a compensation fund for relatives of the Rana Plaza victims to reach its target of £20m. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, put the issue of textile industry working conditions on the G7 agenda, and the leaders’ communique calls for a “vision zero fund” – in essence an insurance fund – to compensate victims of future disasters and improve working conditions. The fund would be administered in conjunction with the International Labour Organisation, and require contributions from trade associations in developed countries represented at the G7. It would act as an insurance system for firms that commit to prevention measures and help implement labour, social, environmental and safety standards, such as better-trained fire prevention inspectors. Extremely low wages have led global brands and retailers to choose Bangladesh over China and other developing countries in recent years, but in many cases the big brands have either turned a blind eye to working conditions in pursuit of profit or knowingly taken no interest in how their clothes are manufactured. The Rana Plaza collapse prompted demands for reforms in a sector that helps Bangladesh earn more than £12bn a year from exports, mainly to the US and Europe. The G7 communique states: “Given our prominent share in the globalisation process, G7 countries have an important role to play in promoting labour rights, decent working conditions and environmental protection in global supply chains. Unsafe and poor working conditions lead to significant social and economic losses and are linked to environmental damage. We will strive for better application of internationally recognised labour, social and environmental standards, principles and commitments.” The communique says it is the responsibility of governments and business to foster sustainable supply chains. National governments must persuade companies headquartered in their territory to conduct due diligence on how their clothes are manufactured. Germany’s federal development minister, Gerd Müller, one of the politicians behind the initiative, said seamstresses in Vietnam or Bangladesh who worked on jeans that could be sold in Berlin for €100 a pair worked at an hourly rate of 15 cents.