The European Union (EU) has requested Bangladesh to quickly amend the EPZ Labour Act for the latter to retain the Everything But Arms (EBA) benefit, which allows duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market. Bangladesh enacted a new law for export processing zones (EPZs) in 2019. A draft set of rules based on the law is at the law ministry for vetting.
Bangladesh wants to formulate a new law once the new rules are in effect.
"We would like to underline once again the importance of accelerating the date of amending the EPZ Labour Act, a key point expressly raised in the past years and in all our recent meetings in Dhaka," a letter, jointly signed by EU's director general of trade Ewa Synowiec, director general of employment Jordi Curell and deputy managing director for Asia and Pacific Paola Pamaloni, said.
The Bangladesh government earlier submitted to the EU a road map for implementation of the latter’s nine-point action plan given to Bangladesh by 2026, known as the National Action Plan (NAP).
Although the plan called for amending the EPZ Labour Act by February 2023, the government objected to the introduction of trade unions.
"Waiting for the implementation of the EPZ Labour Rules is not needed. We therefore look forward to a concrete adjusted timeline for amending the EPZ Labour Act," said the three EU officials.
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