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CUTS CITEE LInkages Update No.2/2003 No.2, 2003 |
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The CUTS-CITEE Linkages Update is a quarterly e-newsletter, which apprises readers on news, information and analysis related to the issue of linkages between trade and labour standards, and trade and environment. If you are receiving this e-newsletter inadvertently, we apologise for the same. Please do let us know to make the necessary changes.
Contents Editor’s
Note News
Roundup Studies
& Reports Events
Refugee Rights and EU’s Common Policy The
European Union is developing a common policy on asylum for refugees. In 1999,
the EU states set the goal of creating a common system for asylum for genuine
refugees from conflict zones. Many of them have harmonised national asylum
procedures.
EU states surrounded by conflict zones and their wealth are attracting
genuine refugees as well as economic refugees. According to a study by Soren
Pederson of Denmark’s Rockwool Foundation Research Unit, moonlighting and
other sorts of clandestine labour activity are thriving in the EU’s wealthy
northern belt. It also founds little correlation between receiving
unemployment benefits and a propensity to engage in such activities.
Britain is a leading advocate for this common EU approach.
Incidentally, in 1990s it was Britain who opposed German efforts to bring the
EU into asylum policy. Britain has replaced Germany as the largest single EU
destination for asylum-seekers and wants all the multinational help it can get
to reduce the number.
Britain made two major proposals. One was the creation of centralised
processing centres located just outside the EU, to which the EU asylum-seekers
would be removed for their cases to be heard. Second was the creation of a
regional protection zones near to areas of conflict, like the Horn of Africa.
Hind Lever Accused of Using Child Labour Leading
international NGOs such as Amnesty International, India Committee of the
Netherlands, FNV (the Dutch trade union group) and Novib (Oxfam, Netherlands)
have brought to Unilever’s attention that the hybrid cottonseeds production
business in India, handled by its local arm, Hindustan Lever, allegedly uses
child labour in some farms.
According
to the NGOs’ reports, a sample survey of 12 seed farms revealed that, on
average, about nine children were employed for the cultivation of cottonseeds
on one acre of land.
Unilever
has traditionally objected to the use of child labour as a matter of corporate
policy.
Whaling
Threatens Tourism Iceland
ceased whaling in 1989 after a long international boycott of Icelandic fish.
Earlier this year it announced plans to kill 100 minke, 100 fin and 50 sei
whales each year under an IWC loophole, which allows whales to be killed for
scientific purposes. For more: http://www.enn.com/direct ILO
and Myanmar Agree for A Facilitator on Forced Labour The
Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Juan Somavia,
has welcomed a formal understanding between the ILO and the Union of Myanmar
for the establishment of a facilitator to assist possible victims of forced
labour in Myanmar.
Somavia
reiterated that the ILO Liaison Officer in Yangon would continue to do the
utmost for a successful conclusion of the Plan of Action. In addition to the
formal understanding on the facilitator, such a Plan of Action would comprise
a road-building project in a pilot area; alternatives to the use of forced
labour; and information and awareness raising. Handbook
for Action-oriented Research on the Worst Forms of Child Labour The
Regional Working Group on Child Labour in South Asia has released a new
publication compiled by Joachim Theis. This handbook is designed primarily for
the use of research practitioners who may have little or no experience of
conducting research on worst forms of child labour, including trafficking in
children.
This
handbook is written in simple language and offers a clear step, examples and
ideas to help practitioners increase their understanding of and their capacity
to conduct action-oriented participatory research on the worst forms of child
labour.
The
handbook will be useful for the national staff of local government,
non-government and international organisations-people who are engaged in
action in action in the field and need to make decisions on project
interventions based on their own research and analysis and/or on the result of
research by others. Trade Sanctions, Adult Unemployment and the Supply of Child Labour This article, written by Manas Ranjan Gupta of the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, considers a competitive general equilibrium model of a small, open less developed economy, which exports products using child labour, the supply of which varies inversely with the rate of unemployment in the adult labour market.
It analyses the effects of polices
such as trade sanctions and subsidisation or protection of child labour. It is
suggested that the former may actually aggravate the child labour problem, if
the unemployment effect dominates the wage effect. On the other hand,
theoretical analysis indicates that trade and fiscal policies influencing the
effective producers’ price of the products of adult labour might be a more
effective approach to the problem.
Export Structure, Foreign Direct Investment and Child LabourThe paper, written by Matthias Busse and Sebastian Braun of Hamburg Institute of International Economics, Germany, addresses the linkage between certain aspects of the increasing economic integration of world markets and the level of child labour.
The results indicate that multinationals are highly sensitive with
respect to the location of their transplants and prefer countries with lower
levels of child labour. The opposite outcome applies to child labour and
comparative advantage in labour-intensive goods, where a significant positive
relationship is found. Based on these results, the paper also discusses some
policy implications on how to deal with child labour effectively.
Can Labour Standards Improve Under Globalisation?The debate on whether and how to link labour standards to trade has led to an impasse in American trade policy for much of the past decade and has tied the hands of US trade negotiators. Proposals like “let the market do it” or “let the International Labour Organization (ILO) do it” abound, but it is less common to find any serious analysis of just how activists can galvanise consumers to demand that corporations raise labour standards in their global operations or how the ILO can become more effective.
In this study, Kimberly A. Elliott of Institute for International
Economics, Washington DC and Richard B. Freeman of Harvard University, USA
move beyond the debate on the relative merits and risks of a social clause in
trade agreements and focus on practical approaches for improving labour
standards in a more integrated global economy. They examine both what is being
done in these areas and what more needs to be done to ensure steady and
tangible progress toward universal respect for core labour standards.
South
Asian Civil Society Agenda for the Cancun Ministerial CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment, in association with the South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment (SAWTEE), will be organising the annual conference of the SACSNITI (South Asian Civil Society Network on International Trade Issues) project at Kathmandu, Nepal on 24-25 July 2003. The
purpose is to prepare a South Asian Civil Society Declaration in the run up to
the fifth Ministerial Conference of the WTO to be held in Cancun, Mexico in
September 2003. |
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About ‘The CUTS-CITEE Linkages Update’ This is a strictly non-commercial and educational service for non-profit organisations and interested individuals. For subscription please write to: CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment (CUTS-CITEE) D-217, Bhaskar Marg, Bani Park, Jaipur 302016, India. Ph: 91.141.2282821, Fax: 91.141.2207486/2203998 E-mail: citee@cuts.org |
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