US govt report exposes goods made by child labor

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

US govt report exposes goods made by child labor
September 10, 2009 4:28 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. government report identifies more than 58 countries where child labor or forced labor is used to make hundreds of goods — from coffee grown in Colombia to Christmas decorations made in China — that often end up in the United States.

The government wants American companies and consumers to know about the chance these products are made under conditions in which children and other workers are exploited and abused.

"We want to engage with these countries and corporations that may have their hands in the wrong places here and try to correct this," said Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. "I do hope that the major corporations will take it seriously."

Despite some progress in curtailing child and forced labor, the problem continues to persist with products from nearly every region of the world, from West African cocoa farms to Latin American sugar cane to Indian silk.



Read more: http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=AP&date=20090910&id=10377980

[FreakinDJ]

1. Screw the report - raise the tarrifs

[pampango]

3. Is that you Sen. Smoot (R-UT), Rep. Hawley (R-OR) or Pres. Hoover (R)?

I thought you guys were all dead. Those tariffs seemed like a good idea at the time, didn't they? Sorry that all of you lost your reelection campaigns to anti-tariff Democrats in 1932. FDR, in particular, campaigned against your tariffs in 1932 and spent years dismantling them.

Just because your idea didn't work back then is no reason not to try it again, I suppose. :)

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[OhioChick]

6. "So why do you hate American workers so much"

Guess I'm not the only one that's noticed that.

[pampango]

10. I'm glad your posts don't get deleted, anyway.

See my other post for a response to "So why do you hate American workers so much". :)

[FreakinDJ]

12. She is asking the question - "Why do you HATE American workers"

and we are all waiting for your responce

[pampango]

13. And I was happy to give it to her. n/t

[pampango]

9. Sorry. I went to the "FDR-trade is better than tariffs" school. Did you go to the Smoot(R)/Hawley(R)

"tariffs are better than trade" school?

GATT (the predecessor to the WTO) was a Democratic concept (as are most international organizations the US belongs to) to promote world trade that had suffered under the tariff battles of the 1930's. FDR and Truman did not want us to fall back into the dueling tariffs world of the Depression.

China imposes tariffs on imports (not just American made goods) because the WTO allows developing countries to impose tariffs that developed countries cannot. The developed countries in the WTO agreed to let developing countries do this and China is doing it. Now that China has developed significantly in the 15 years since the last WTO negotiation and is not really a "developing" country anymore, they should have their tariffs reduced. I hope that is part of the ongoing negotiations.

My economic policy differs a little from your "Smoot/Hawley/Hoover" redux policy. I like the European economic growth model in which countries provide their citizens with national health care, progressive taxation, effective market regulation and strong social safety nets. They also have free trade with their continental neighbors and plenty of "unfree" trade with the rest. (The EU imports more from China than we do.)

Oh, and surely you're not comparing the poverty rate and decline in median household income in the last few years with the glorious Smoot/Hawley/Hoover tariff years of the 1930's. Neither of us "hates American workers" (anymore than FDR did for dismantling tariffs), but if you wish to bring back those glorious years you may have some explaining to do.

on edit - Damn. After writing and posting this response I see that your post was deleted. Now no one will know what I am responding to.

[FreakinDJ]

11. Try Freerepublic - your Bull Shit might go over better there

WalMart - Good / American Workers - Bad

American Cars - Bad / Foriegn Cars - Good

Never Tax Corporations - they'll just pass the cost along / Tax Working class - they are only slackers

Enough with the RATpubliCON / Rush LickBalls rhtoric already. The GOP mandate economy crashed in 2008 because RATpubliCONs created Tax incentives to move American Corporations to China, and the American families will be feeling the effects and paying off corporate greed for decades

U.S. Says China Violated Trade Law

Tariffs Imposed as Subsidies to Pipe Makers Called Illegal

By Peter Whoriskey

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, September 10, 2009

In one of the largest U.S.-China trade cases ever, the U.S. Commerce Department has issued a preliminary finding that Chinese steel pipe producers have received government subsidies in violation of trade law, helping them overrun the competition.
The volume of steel pipes imported from China more than tripled between 2006 and 2008, rising from $632 million to $2.6 billion, according to the Commerce Department.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...090902768.html

We all can see exactly how concerned you are for children here - traitor

2nd lead poisoning case hits China, 1,300 sick

BEIJING – China detained two factory officials after 1,300 children were poisoned by pollution from a manganese processing plant, state media said Thursday, days after emissions from a lead smelter in another province sickened hundreds.

Some 1,354 children who live near the plant — or nearly 70 percent of those tested — were found to have excessive lead in their blood, Xinhua said
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090820/ap_on_re_as/as_china_lead_poisoning

[pampango]

14. Or you could take your Smoot/Hawley/Hoover repub tariffs to freeperville.

I hear they're not exactly "foreigner friendly" over there, either.

"WalMart - Good / American Workers - Bad

American Cars - Bad / Foriegn Cars - Good

Never Tax Corporations - they'll just pass the cost along / Tax Working class - they are only slackers

Enough with the RATpubliCON / Rush LickBalls rhtoric already. The GOP mandate economy crashed in 2008 because RATpubliCONs created Tax incentives to move American Corporations to China, and the American families will be feeling the effects and paying off corporate greed for decades"

Well said but what does that have to do with what I said in my previous post, "My economic policy differs a little from your "Smoot/Hawley/Hoover" redux policy. I like the European economic growth model in which countries provide their citizens with national health care, progressive taxation, effective market regulation and strong social safety nets. They also have free trade with their continental neighbors and plenty of "unfree" trade with the rest."

What exactly does a European economic model with national health care, progressive taxation, market regulation and strong social safety nets have to do with your stream of consciousness about WalMart, cars, and corporations?

We have accused China of violating trade law. China has accused us. We have accused the EU. (The EU was just judged by the WTO to have unfairly subsidized Airbus.) Accusation on all sides are fairly frequent. When they are judged to be accurate countries impose penalties and sanctions of the offending country. China is far from perfect in following trade law, as are we.

The good ol' "if you trade with a country you must agree with their government and everything that happens in the country" theory. It has worked for decade for repubs (and too many Democrats) in maintaining an embargo with Cuba. Repubs also don't want to negotiate with North Korea or Iran because to do so would somehow imply that you approve of everything that goes on there.

If I thought that not trading with Cuba or China or Iran was best for the people of those countries, I would reconsider my position. Just like I think our embargo on Cuba is stupid for us and not good for the Cuban people, I feel the same way about China and Iran and Nigeria. Just because you trade with a country doesn't mean that you support everything that goes on there.

(Of course if we embargoed every place that had a pollution disaster, we wouldn't trade with anyone , including Niagra Falls, NY where Love Canal was.)

[FreakinDJ]

15. Those tarrif policies were in place PRIOR to 1929

And YES they contributed heavily to the demise of the extremely speculative stock market of 1929. And yes they even imposed additional tariffs after the fall of the markets which led directly to the Global Depression

No one here is advocating "Protectionism" such as we saw in 1929 and the early 30s

Here we have an entirely different set of trade parameters

We have nations engaging in predatory market/trade practices (so similar to WalMart marketing practices its like they took a page out of Walmart's Business plan) not dependant on gaining market share but rather domination of a market (such as steel, Aluminum, other metals) only to manipulate and further control the market once domestic competition has been eliminated.

Given, many steel producers moved off shore to escape EPA regulations, but China has even attacked those countries (such as South Korea) with unfair trade practices aimed at eliminating their industries as well.

Currently China can produce "Finished" machined goods for less then American manufactures can buy the raw material. This is not because of the mark-up of raw material in America, but rather the subsidies China gives it's manufacturing facilities, which is paid for by VAT tax (value added tax) placed on the raw materials (such as bulk steel) shipped overseas. In other words, were paying for the demise of our own economy

Sure its good for a few multinational conglomerates like WalMart who import the majored percentage of Chinese made goods, but at what cost to the American economy overall

[pampango]

16. I largely agree. Smoot/Hawley passed the House in 1928, the Senate in 1930, then

was signed by Hoover.

I understand that you're not talking about tariff levels of the 1930's, but unilateral tariffs always carry a potential danger of retaliation and a spiral of dueling tariff increases as happened in the thirties. When one country imposes unilateral tariffs, unless a solution is promptly negotiated, the other country often responds with tariffs of its own. It becomes a matter of national pride.

I would rather see us work through international organizations (most were Democratic concepts to begin with) to resolve problems whether they are economic, political, military, or environmental. All these organizations have some problems, but to ignore them is too much like the past 8 years. With Obama in charge of our side we can hope that they will function more for the good of regular people than they have in the past. I realize that sometimes that is not possible to rely on international cooperation and we have to take care of problems unilaterally, I just hope we minimize it.

We are not the only ones affected by China's economy or by North Korea or by climate change or a host of other global problems. I hope that we seek multilateral solutions to these problems whenever possible even though that may take longer and in some ways be less satisfying to Americans who are used to solving our own problems and not worrying as much as say Europeans about the opinions or problems of people in other countries.

[WatchWhatISay]

5. Screw the report - give it some real teeth

The government wants American companies and consumers to know about the chance these products are made under conditions in which children and other workers are exploited and abused.

AND YET

It does not name foreign companies that use child labor or U.S. businesses that purchase such goods. Solis said the intent is not to penalize companies or bar trade with any country.

It only names the countries involved. Why do we always give them the chance to do the right thing for way too long, when they have already demonstrated a willingness to ignore the laws, or whatever they have to do to produce maximum profits no matter how immoral for as long as they can possibly get away with it? Its like expecting Republicans to behave in the best interests of our country when all they really want to do is regain power.

[Better Today]

8. Good catch! More lipservice, look we're alerting you to our good intentions without actually doing

good at all. Just like the HCR seems to be heading to. Today I wish I could change my screen name, I'm not feeling better today anymore.

[HopeHoops]

2. What did they do, take inventory at WalMart?

:shrug:

[Brickbat]

7. Sometimes there truly is no alternative, but when I'm out and about, and I see something that I

might like, a shirt or a book or something for the home, I look to see where it was made, and I imagine my 10-year-old son being pulled out of school so he can go and work with dangerous machinery or harmful glues or poisonous paints to make whatever I'm holding, and I usually find that I didn't need whatever-it-was so badly after all.

Helps the pocketbook, too.