Govt to monitor child labour involvement in fishery plants

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FE Report
The government has taken a move to monitor involvement of child labour in country's shrimp industries against the backdrop of widespread allegations of international buyers in this respect.
The Business Promotion Council (BPC) under ministry of commerce has decided to conduct a study, jointly with Katalyst, to identify whether child labour is involved with the shrimp industry value-chain, which is associated with compliance and standards.
The BPC Sunday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Katalyst, a multi-donor project, to conduct the study to find out the shortcomings of the industries on labour issues.
Council coordinator of BPC Md Gulam Hussain and Peter Roggekamp general manager of Katalyst signed the MoU on behalf of their respective sides.
Commerce secretary Feroz Ahmed attended the programme as the chief guest.
All stakeholders of shrimp industries including Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA), Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation (BSFF) and Department of Fisheries (DoF) attended the programme.
Recently, a US non-government organisation filed a writ petition to withdraw the facilities under the generalised system of preferences (GSP) for Bangladesh to the US market claiming involvement of child labour on shrimp industries.
Addressing the gathering at the function, the commerce secretary said: "The government is concerned over about the writ petitions filed by the US-NGO on US trade representative (USTR), which might affect the second largest export earning sector of the country."
He, however, underscored the need for a detailed study on child labour issues to keep smooth flow of export of shrimp industries.
Requesting the frozen foods exporters to meet the compliance of foreign buyers, Firoz said: "The exporters should be careful to avoid the matters that irritate buyers of such foods."
The BPC has been working for five leading exporting sectors and a new council will be formed by this week for fisheries industries only.