5 Jan 2001, US customs stops goods produced in Mongolia

Dear all,

For your information...

New York: Attacking the use of forced child labour, the U.S. Customs Service has ordered that all men's and girl's clothing manufactured by a Chinese-owned company in Mongolia, Dong Fang International, be stopped at the US border.

A law passed in October 1999 and sponsored by anti-child labour advocate Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa) adds products made by children under 14 to an existing ban on imports made by forced, convict or indentured labour.

The factory is also being investigated for not paying overtime, providing poor working conditions and requiring workers to work 14-hour shifts every day.

The action comes amid increasing scrutiny of sweatshop factories abroad. During the prolonged debate about granting permanent-trading rights to China earlier this year, the Clinton administration promised to step up scrutiny of labour practices there to guard against imports of goods made under oppressive conditions.

According to Customs, Dong Fang ships about $1.5 million in apparel to the U.S. a year, about 90 percent of which is sold directly to U.S. wholesalers under the Wuxi Guang Ming Overseas Fashion Ltd. and High Fashions Overseas Ltd. names. The rest of its business is with U.S. labels, principally with Guess and Phillips Van Heusen, Customs said.

The only other import case brought under the Harkin law involved hand-rolled beedis (cigarettes) from India.

The spokesman said the Dong Fang investigation should be completed within a month. If the allegations aren't borne out, then the import ban will be lifted.

A Phillips-Van Heusen Corp. spokesman said the company for six months this year produced goods at the Dong Fang factory and had not seen any signs of underage labourers or forced overtime. He said the company in late 1999 reviewed the factory's workers and human rights conditions and found some "problems that did not include any evidence of underage workers, forced overtime or anything of the sort."

The problems were rectified, PVH said, and the company began producing some goods at the factory in March, but ceased to work with the factory in August. It is not known why the company terminated its relationship with the factory.

The company's Web site spells out detailed labour policies, which include not using contractors who rely on child labour or forced labour.

# # # (From the files of Associated Press)

From CCC:

The original Harkin Bill (proposed in 1992) on banning products made with child labour, led to an estimated 50.000 children in the Bangladeshi garment industry being dismissed without provisions for their rehabilitation. This was strongly oppposed by Bangladeshi trade unions and NGOs who saw the bill as disguised protectionism, and felt that measures should be comprehensive, take into account the needs of adults as well as childrenadress the working conditions themselves, include support programmes for children. See for a more extensive report our website.

Unstitching the child labour debate
http://www.cleanclothes.org/publications\unst1.htm