EU attacks Bangladeshi “criminality”. And about bloody time, too

The EU’s April 30 statement about Bangladesh reads as if it’s been written by me, rather than by a pair of professional diplomats. But quite rightly

For too long, diplomatic niceties have prevented straight talking about the toxic and corrupt relationship between the Bangladesh garment industry and the country’s politicians. The summary by  EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht on April 30 finally injected some sense into diplomacy.

They threatened to withdraw or restrict Bangladesh’s duty-free access over the Rana Plaza collapse, as “the alleged criminality around the building’s construction is finally becoming clear to the world” and went on to say: “The EU is presently considering appropriate action, including through the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP)… in order to incentivise responsible management of supply chains”.

Catherine Ashton failed by just a couple of miles to be born in the world capital of blunt talking, Liverpool. But they no more held with shilly-shallying round the Wigan coal mines her dad worked in than round the Liverpool docks where mine worked.  And the EU’s misguided complicity in tolerating Bangladesh’s disgraceful working conditions isn’t something to shilly-shally about

The EU accounts for 60% of Bangladesh’s apparel imports – which means about half the country’s entire exports, and a quarter of its whole industrial workforce.  Practically all its garment exports arrive in Europe duty free, and even the tiniest adjustment to the terms of that concession could dramatically impact the Bangladesh economy.

Bangladesh garments’ current eligibility for duty-free access to the EU needs two far from tiny adjustments:

-          In Bangladesh’s case, it needs to be limited to garments made in factories meeting basic construction standards and certified by truly independent inspectors

-          And – something politicians keep missing – it needs to be suspended until Bangladesh opens its garment industry up to foreigners.

Too many words have been written in the past week about the inadequacies of Bangladesh’s control system for me to add much useful. But nothing like enough about the need to destroy the mutual back-scratching going on between factory owners and politicians.

It’s practically impossible for a foreign company to open a garment factory in Bangladesh – an absurd restriction which even stops Bangladeshi factory owners from selling their business to Koreans or Chinese who know how to run a factory, taking their money and retiring somewhere they’ll do less damage.

This denies the Bangladesh economy access to competent managers, prevents Bangladeshis from moving into another business, and guarantees the industry will stay dominated by the time-serving conspirators who currently run it. Remember: even the head office of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association was built illegally. Its leaders show such little respect for the law they refuse to tear it down – and so much contempt for public opinion, they scarcely attempt to disguise the reason they insist on a Bangladeshi monopoly. Because, in the words of former Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association  President Salim Osman, having foreign owners “may lead to unrest amongst workers over issues like disparities in wages and other benefits offered by the domestic and foreign firms”

Foreign owners will pay workers more, in other words. Obey the law. And not pay local politicians the bribes respect they think they deserve.

The statement reveals almost unprecedented impatience with a poor country, and especially one which the EU traditionally treats with kid gloves. While most EU threats and sanctions take forever to unfurl, the possibility this threat might both materialise fast – and provoke concrete action among Bangladesh’s criminal-tolerant political classes – looks surprisingly likely.

And as we’d put it in and around Merseyside: not before bloody time.

Good on yer, Kath. Just remember: it's deeds we need, just a much as words.