In this photograph taken on April 25, 2013 Bangladeshi volunteers and rescue workers are pictured at the scene after an eight-storey building collapsed in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka.
WASHINGTON: Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday that the US wanted to work with Bangladesh on workers’ rights and safety in the wake of the deadly factory collapse, and offered help after a killer storm.
Welcoming his Bangladeshi counterpart Dipu Moni to Washington for talks, the top US diplomat said “our hearts go out to the families” of the 1,127 people killed when a garment factory complex crumbled on April 24.
“We hope that this will be able to help all of us cooperate on the issue of labour and labour standards and workers and workers’ rights,” Kerry told Moni after Bangladesh’s worst industrial accident.
Bangladesh is the world’s second-biggest apparel maker and the $20bn industry accounts for up to 80 percent of annual exports.
Kerry promised the United States had “a number of initiatives” it wanted to share with Bangladesh.
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