COMMENT ON DOL DRAFT LIST FOR TVPRA

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRASILIA 000124

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/27/2019
TAGS: EIND ELAB ETRD PHUM SOCI BR
SUBJECT: COMMENT ON DOL DRAFT LIST FOR TVPRA

REF: A. SECSTATE 3075

B. BUENOS AIRES 50

C. BOGOTA 275

D. SAO PAULO 432

Classified By: Political Counselor Stephen Liston, reasons 1.4 b/d


1. (U) This is an action request, please see paragaph five.


2. (C) Embassy Brasilia appreciates the opportunity to
comment on the draft TVPRA list of products using child
and/or forced labor. The draft list of Brazilian products is
only partially accurate and Mission is concerned that this
blunt instrument will not reflect the relative size of the
problem and therefore may unfairly brand an entire product
even when only a small percentage of production uses child
and/or forced labor. Nor can it adequately reflect trends
that are especially relevant to certain sensitive products
such as ethanol derived from sugarcane (ref D). We also
share the concerns expressed by Buenos Aires (ref B) and
Bogota (ref C) and would like to see more detailed
information in the final list to give context about the size
of the child and forced labor problems. It will also be
important to distinguish between those countries in which
governments are taking serious steps to correct child and
forced labor problems and those where no such effort is being
made.


3. (C) Publication of the list can be expected to provoke a
negative reaction from Brazilian authorities who may suspect
an underlying trade protection motive on our part. For this
reason and in view of acute Brazilian sensitivity to outside
criticism, Mission will need to brief Brazilian officials on
the final list before it is made public to mitigate the
damage.


4. (C) Mission has credible information that child and/or
forced labor is used to produce the following:

Beans (soy) Child Labor and Forced Labor
Cattle Child Labor and Forced Labor
Ceramics Child Labor
Charcoal Child Labor and Forced Labor (Note: as it pertains
to charcoal for the production of pig iron. End note.)
Coffee Child Labor
Cotton Child Labor and Forced labor
Footwear Child Labor
Manioc/Cassava Child Labor
Pineapples Child Labor
Rice Child Labor
Sisal Child Labor
Sugarcane Child Labor and Forced Labor
Talcum (mineral) Child Labor
Timber Forced Labor
Tobacco Child Labor

(Note: Labor Ministry statistics for several of these
products suggest low numbers of children may be involved.
End note.)

Mission has credible information that child labor is also
used in gold and tin mining and to harvest Brazil nuts.

We cannot confirm that child and/or forced labor is used to
produce the following and will seek additional information:

Bananas Child Labor
Bricks Child Labor
Coffee Forced Labor (Note: an NGO expert on forced labor told
us there are very few forced labor cases associated with
coffee. End note.)
Corn Child Labor


5. (SBU) Action request: Mission requests information from
DOL about sources used to develop the list of Brazilian
products. Mission will continue to research products on the
list and will provide additional findings.

Sobel
SOBEL