TUCOSWA TO BRIEF AMERICA AGAIN

MBABANE – The Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) will once again brief the United States (US) Government on issues around the kingdom’s eligibility for the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA).
This comes hardly two months after unionists controversially flew out of the country to attend a trade summit in the USA.

The banned TUCOSWA said there was no way it would exercise patriotism or twist facts to entice the US Government to reinstate the country’s eligibility status.
Instead, TUCOSWA will only acknowledge the tabling of the Industrial Relations Amendment Bill, which was one benchmark the country was seen in the public eye to be addressing.

Vincent Ncongwane, TUCOSWA Secretary General, said there was nothing more they could say after acknowledging the tabling of the Industrial Relations Amendment Bill.
“We don’t know what government is doing with the other four benchmarks which are also vital for the country to meet so that we regain AGOA. We will tell the US Government that we have no evidence that the other four benchmarks are being addressed,” said Ncongwane.

In Federal Register Volume 79, No. 189, the Office of the United States Trade Representative has issued a request for public comments on annual review of country eligibility for benefits under AGOA in calendar year 2015. 
The deadline for submissions, which TUCOSWA will submit by email, is October 25, 2014.
Ncongwane went on to say TUCOSWA was one of the stakeholders expected to make submissions on what the government of the Kingdom of Swaziland had done to meet the five benchmarks or conditions for retaining the textile and apparel market opened by the US Government for sub-Saharan countries.

 “TUCOSWA exists and that’s why the US Government accepts our submissions. Our report is near completion and we will transmit it to the USA for consideration,” he said.
“Perhaps, the government will claim to be doing something about the other benchmarks behind the scenes and we don’t have proof of that. We will talk about what we know. The truth is that government is attempting to address one benchmark,” said Ncongwane.

Percy Simelane, the Government Press Secretary, said government elected not to entertain TUCOSWA’s ‘piracy’.
He said the federation should register first before government could officially deal with it.
“TUCOSWA does not exist in terms of the law. We have no legal basis to engage them in talks now and we wonder who will give TUCOSWA an ear when it is not properly registered,” said Simelane.   
In August this year, Ncongwane and Sipho Gumedze, a human rights lawyer, hogged international headlines when they demonstrated outside the White House in Washington DC and carried placards that called for a free press in Swaziland and retaining of AGOA.
His Majesty was also in the USA as well attending the US-Africa Leadership Summit hosted by US President Barack Obama.  Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini told MPs that the two human and worker rights advocates embarrassed the King to an extent that they should be strangulated on their return to the country.
He later withdrew his statement after the US Government had complained about it.
It can be said that the termination of Swaziland’s eligibility for AGOA, was due to lack of progress in protecting workers’ rights, especially the freedom of association and the right to organise.
Michael Froman, the US Trade Representative (USTR), explained that the withdrawal of AGOA benefits was not a decision taken lightly.
Froman, an advisor of President Obama on trade issues, said: “We hope to continue our engagement with the Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland on steps it can take so that worker and civil society groups can freely associate and assemble and AGOA eligibility can be restored.”  Winnie Magagula, the Minister of Labour and Social Security, said she was not aware that TUCOSWA would make submissions to the USTR. She said government was doing all in its powers to regain the trade benefits.
She hoped the US Government would get a true picture of what was happening from its counterpart, the Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland.

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