Ambassador Qader briefs Congressman Keith Ellison on International Crimes Tribunal ( ICT) and GSP issue

Bangladesh Ambassador to the USA Mr. Akramul Qader April 17 met with Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN5) and briefed him on the constitution of the International Crimes tribunal (ICTBD), its legal premises as well as the current situation of the country. He also updated him on the ongoing GSP case with the USTR and sought his intervention in this regard.  Ambassador Qader handed over the Congressman some documents in regards to the ICTBD and a paper related to Bangladesh’s submission to the USTR on GSP.

While providing a brief overview on different aspects of the ICTBD including its commitment to fair and transparent trials, Ambassador Qader said that the ICTBD’s primary mandate is to bring to justice the local collaborators of Pakistani occupation army during our war of liberation in 1971 for crimes committed against humanity. He added that the mass killings and atrocities orchestrated in 1971 devalued general principles of humanity, particularly because those were carried out in a planned manner on the basis of ethnicity, religion, and race. He mentioned that the present government led by Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made an electoral pledge to bring to justice the war criminals of 1971, and she received an overwhelming public mandate to try the criminals. He offered a detailed account on the recent verdicts of the ICTBD, the context and justifications of the judgments as well as the unprecedented violence and atrocities by extremist groups against the law enforcing agencies, and minority communities in defiance of the verdicts of the ICTBD . He also shared with the congressman a video on recent atrocities in Fatikchori, Chittagong. While agreeing with the Ambassador on Bangladesh’s rights to uphold the fundamental principles of human rights and  quest for justice under the ICTBD , the congressman has assured the Ambassador to remain engaged in this matter.

On the US-GSP case with the USTR , the Ambassador stressed that Bangladesh’s exclusion from the list of beneficiary nations would bring in a serious market access and image concern for the country. He pointed out that the US-GSP facility does not cover the Readymade Garments export ( RMG) to the USA, and Bangladesh, in fact,  pay an exorbitant amount of over USD 700 m as tariff penalty for its 4.87 billion USD worth RMG exports to the US market. As such, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations’ [AFL-CIO] petition against Bangladesh  has a serious disconnect.  He argued whether it is appropriate to withdraw GSP facility in  the pretext of ensuring good working conditions in RMG factories , while such measures will primarily impact export items other than the RMG.  The exclusion of US-GSP may impact adversely the brand image of Bangladesh RMG entailing a possible worldwide marketing problem for the item. This  will eventually have a damaging consequence on Bangladesh’s economic growth and its impressive records in the fields of human development including, among others, education, public health and women-empowerment. In particular, the worst  victim would be none other than Bangladesh’s millions of poor women employed in the garments industries.

Ambassador Qader also apprised the Congressman of the governmental and industry level measures taken to improve the working conditions, safety measures, and benefit packages of the RMG workers. He assured that Bangladesh is on the right trajectory of improvement in terms of Government’s oversight and industry level awareness on maintaining world class labor standards. Given adequate time and enabling environment, Bangladesh aspires to fulfill its commitments to the poor workers in the country as well as to international community, he added.

The Congressman  took a serious interest in Ambassador Qader’s deliberations and assured to seriously look into the case.Press Release.