In the News

Pacific trade negotiators face high-wire act in Hawaii

Reuters
07/27/2015
Pacific Rim officials meet in Hawaii this week for talks that could make or break an ambitious trade deal which aims to boost growth and set common standards across a dozen economies ranging from the United States to Brunei.
 
Trade ministers go into the talks, which run from July 28 to 31 on the island of Maui, with high hopes of a pact to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the most sweeping trade deal in a generation and a legacy-defining achievement for U.S. President Barack Obama.
 

Democrat spotlights Peru labor complaint

The Hill
07/23/2015
The top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday welcomed a complaint against Peru’s government for alleged labor violations ahead of what could be the final round of talks on a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade deal. 
 
Rep. Sandy Levin of Michigan said that the complaint shines the light on workers rights issues and that the United States must ensure that labor protections in all Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries, including Vietnam, Mexico, Malaysia and Peru.
 

Candy makers fire back on forced labor

The Hill
05/16/2015
While the NCA stopped short of endorsing an end to the exemption, the group stressed that companies have not “utilized any provision of the more than 80-year-old customs law to import cocoa” for their products from West Africa.
 
“We’re working very hard to change the labor conditions in their region,” said Christopher Gindlesperger, the NCA’s vice president of government affairs.
 

Artisanal, hand-crafted chocolate is a growing niche

Los Angeles Times
02/28/2015

Ryan Berk makes his chocolate from scratch. That means flying to Central America four times a year, hiking over Maya ruins to remote jungle villages and meeting face-to-face with the farmers who supply his cocoa beans.

Roasted back home at Berk's shop, the beans have a habit of enveloping downtown Redlands with a warm smell like brownies fresh from the oven. It's only then that the chocolate maker with the Indiana Jones streak can mix and shape the ancient treat into bars, carefully wrapping each one by hand.

Thailand considered sourcing your fish dinner with prison labor

Global Post
01/20/2015

BANGKOK, Thailand — Trawling the ocean on a Thai fishing boat is one of Asia’s foulest jobs.

It can involve 20-hour work days on a reeking boat, bobbing on lawless seas, under captains who lord over crews like slave drivers. The job attracts so few takers that fishing syndicates infamously rely on forced labor: duping migrants onto ships and forcing them to toil for no pay.

(Continue reading the article on the original website here...)

Bold Thai plan to send prisoners to sea sinks amid rights protests

Reuters
01/20/2015

A radical plan by the Thai government to put prisoners to work on the country's under-staffed fishing boats has been scrapped, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday, following charges the scheme threatened inmates' rights.

Rights groups had also argued the idea would fail to address the fundamental causes of the labor shortage that fuels human trafficking in Thailand's fishing industry.

(Continue reading the article on the original website here...)

Is Your Favorite Chocolate the Product of Child Labor?

The Nation
12/22/2014

A good chunk of that deliciousness on our holiday dessert trays is sourced from lush farmlands of West Africa, where cocoa beans are tenderly grown and processed to meet the scrutiny of international quality controls. The end product is a painstakingly nurtured commodity valued like no other in the world. The same cannot be said of the children working the land.

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