Bangladesh updates US on labour rights

Dhaka has updated Washington on the steps taken by Bangladesh to improve labour rights, and agreed to remain engaged on the issue.
Bangladesh Ambassador to the US Muhammad Imran discussed the matter during a meeting with Julie Su, acting US secretary of labour, in Washington DC yesterday on the sidelines of an event organised by the US Department of Labor .
They discussed the current labour situation in Bangladesh and steps taken by Bangladesh to improve workers' rights, according to a statement from the Bangladesh embassy in Washington DC.
The meeting comes weeks after the US rolled out a presidential memorandum on advancing labour rights in the US and abroad.
While announcing the memorandum on November 16, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, cited Kalpona Akter, a Bangladeshi garment worker and activist, as an example of the type of people the policy intends to safeguard.
As per the memorandum, the US foreign mission would directly interact with or deal with labour issues and the policy may encourage interested US diplomats or missions to interfere in many internal or domestic issues.
Later, the Bangladesh embassy in Washington sent a letter to the commerce ministry in Dhaka saying that although the US presidential memorandum appears to be a global policy, there are reasons to believe that Bangladesh may be one of the targets.
The US is the major export destination for Bangladesh, with annual earnings of about $10 billion from the American market.
At the meeting yesterday, Ambassador Imran and Julie Su agreed to remain engaged at different levels of the two governments on labour standard of Bangladesh and further understand the concerns of the parties.
Imran also met with Deputy Under Secretary of US Department of Labour Thea Lee at the same event.
Salim Reza, minister (commerce) of Bangladesh Embassy in Washington DC, was also present.
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