OWN CORRESPONDENT, Mbabane | Wednesday
THE United States has rescinded a decision to impose trade sanctions against Swaziland after the tiny kingdom amended a controversial labour law the International Labour Organisation (ILO) deemed restrictive.
The US embassy in Mbabane said the outgoing administration of President Bill Clinton had decided to keep Swaziland in the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), a preferential trade pact for developing countries, after the government of King Mswati III amended the Industrial Relations Act 2000 last week.
It said the country could also benefit from trade concessions under a second preferential trade pact from which it was excluded over industrial relations concerns in October.
“This step (the legislative reforms) ensures the continuation of the kingdom’s status as a GSP beneficiary, and paves the way for Swaziland’s participation in the additional trade benefits offered under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act,” US ambassador Gregory Johnson said in a statement.
The US government had planned to expel Swaziland from the GSP because it deemed some clauses in the four month-old industrial relations act restrictive to trade union activity.
Contentious clauses in the Act made workers liable for losses suffered as a result of industrial action and effectively imposed government appointees on workers organisations.
The powerful Swaziland of Trade Unions (SFTU) has in recent weeks led a series of disruptive actions to protest against the labour law and perceived abuses by the authorities.
The movement demonstrated at the border with South Africa last week in an effort to force the government to concede to its demands on the law and to speed up political reforms in the kingdom, in which party politics were banned 27 years ago.
The trade union movement called off its action last week after the government agreed to discuss its grievances. – AFP