On the anniversary of Liberia's Independence Day, the International Labor Rights Forum has released a new report about child labor and other labor rights abuses on a rubber plantation in Liberia owned by Firestone.

The United States will preemptively investigate possible labor law violations in 14 countries with which it has signed bilateral trade agreements in the last eight years, said United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a July 16 speech to Pittsburgh steelworkers. The Obama administration is changing prior practice, in which the U.S. has examined labor practices in the countries only when complaints have been made, he said.

Stubbornness crops up in harsh environments like that of this desert’s-edge capital, in the stoicism of grilled meat vendors in 110-degree heat or the patience of camels bearing heavy reed mats through the dusty streets.

So, too, in the dogged refusal, for more than two months now, of the impoverished citizens to part with a commodity as seemingly fragile as the tenuous greenery here: democracy.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chief U.S. trade negotiator signaled Wednesday he was in no hurry to rush pending trade pacts to Congress, saying it would not happen until the Obama administration was convinced the deals reflected its values on labor and the environment.