No Accord, Alliance after 2018: Commerce boss

The government will not extend the period of two factory inspection agencies Accord and Alliance after 2018, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said today.

“In 2018, we will take our own responsibility,” he said during a meeting with a delegation of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) at his office.

Accord and Alliance were formed by global retailers and brands to “improve” the safety of Bangladesh’s factories after the Rana Plaza disaster that killed at least 1,135 people.

The tenure of Accord, a platform of 200 retailers and brands, mostly European, and Alliance, another group of 28-North American retailers and brands, will come to an end in June 2018.

“Accord and Alliance exist only in Bangladesh, nowhere else,” Tofail said at the meeting.

Elizabeth Faith Onuko, minister counsellor of labour of the permanent mission of Kenya to the UN, who led the visiting delegation, said they are concerned over the rights of workers of the EPZ factories of Bangladesh.