US does not follow its own advice

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http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20131231190992

US does not follow its own advice
Last updated: Monday, December 30, 2013 9:04 PM

The American government has pushed retailers like Walmart and Gap to demand better working conditions at factories in the developing world that make their merchandise. But it turns out that the government, which buys more than $1.5 billion of clothes from overseas factories, does not follow its own advice.

This was an observation made by The New York Times in its editorial on Sunday. This echoes similar other previous complaints that the United States is good only at advising other nations to observe democracy but does otherwise when its own interests are affected.

The New York Times editorial noted that Factories in Bangladesh, Haiti, Cambodia and elsewhere that make uniforms for federal workers often violate basic labor standards, quoting a report by Ian Urbina which it had earlier published.

A side note in the editorial said that most American military uniforms are made in the United States but a Cambodian factory that makes clothes sold on Army and Air Force bases has employed children as young as 15. A factory in Bangladesh that makes uniforms for the General Services Administration beats workers to keep them in line.