PANAMA: COMMENT ON DOL DRAFT LIST FOR TVPRA

O N F I D E N T I A L PANAMA 000089 E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2019 TAGS: EIND ELAB ETRD PHUM SOCI KTIP SUBJECT: PANAMA: COMMENT ON DOL DRAFT LIST FOR TVPRA REF: A. REF: (A) STATE 3075 ¶B. (B) BUENOS AIRES 00050 Classified by Ambassador Barbara J. Stephenson. Reasons: 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (SBU) This is an action request; see para 3. -------------- Summary -------------- ¶2. (C) Regarding REFTEL A, Embassy Panama concurs with DOL's assessment that coffee is a good for which there is reason to believe is produced by child labor in violation of international standards. Indeed, there is substantial expert consensus and evidentiary basis that child labor is used in the production of coffee. Regarding sugarcane, post has reason to believe that the use of child labor in its production has been significantly reduced in the last three years. Embassy Panama, however, requests that DOL remove pornography from the draft list of goods that DOL has reason to believe are produced by child labor in violation of international standards. Post is concerned that DOL has not met its obligation to find a "significant incidence" of the use of child labor in the production of pornography in Panama. Through its consultations with Panamanian labor experts, post has been unable to confirm any information to establish that pornography is a good for which there is reason to believe is produced with child labor. REFTEL asserts that the only recourse given to post to remove pornography from the list is to prove its nonexistence. While post cannot prove a negative, post is aware that over the past year the GOP has taken appropriate criminal action and repressive steps against such heinous illicit activity and material. Issuing a list that is not supported by substantiated evidence that pornography produced with child labor is an appreciable problem in Panama will: -- undermine the credibility of the TVPRA reporting process as a whole; -- greatly complicate post's efforts to advance efforts to combat trafficking in persons (TIP),including trafficking involving children for commercial sexual exploitation; and -- put post in the unenviable position of having to defend diplomatically a decision that is not only not understood by post but unlikely to be accepted by natural allies in the field as a serious finding; and -- establish an unwarranted and sensational irritant to our bilateral relations and greatly complicate efforts to advance effective diplomacy in partnership with the GOP to confront and address serious child and forced labor challenges. If it is determined that there is a significant incidence of child labor in the production of pornography in Panama, post must be prepared to defend this finding to GOP; unfortunately, post is presently poorly equipped to do so. -------------- Action Request -------------- ¶3. (C) Post requests that DOL make available the information at its disposal that allegedly substantiates its finding that pornography is a product in Panama produced using child labor. Post requests the opportunity to review this information and to comment on it prior to publication of the list. Should such substantiating information not be available or forthcoming, post requests DOL to remove pornography from the list of goods produced by child labor in Panama until a significant incidence can be shown and defended publicly. -------------- Use of Appropriate Standard -------------- ¶4. (C) As noted by Embassy Buenos Aires (REFTEL B),according to the procedural guidelines published in the Federal Register on December 27, 2007, DOL is to consider whether corroborated evidence from various sources indicates a "significant incidence" of child labor, forced labor, or forced child labor in the production of the good in question. Post concurs with Embassy Buenos Aires' interpretation of these guidelines that the burden of proof lies with DOL to show that there is a significant incidence of forced and/or child labor in the production of pornography in Panama. On the basis of post's reporting efforts on TIP and child labor, such a showing cannot be made. The GOP and NGOs uniformly report that there have only been two or three isolated cases of child pornography in the last two years, involving few children. In one of these cases the perpetrator was an American retiree. In its Request for Comment on DOL Draft List for TVPRA, DOL has requested not whether post has information indicating child or forced labor is being used in the production of pornography in Panama, but has apparently already made this finding from separate sources and now puts the burden on post to provide "information that clearly demonstrates that child labor or forced labor is not or is no longer used in the production" of pornography in order to remove it from the list. Post cannot provide DOL with information clearly demonstrating that child labor is not used in the production of pornography, due to the isolated cases referred to above. Post can report with a fair degree of confidence that there is no significant incidence of child labor used in the production of pornography in Panama, based on the information it has received from various GOP agencies, NGOs and law enforcement. However, post understands that, as laid out in REFTEL A, this information will not be factored into DOL's findings based on the current evidentiary burden. -------------- Impact on Current Efforts in TIP -------------- ¶5. (C) Panama is currently on the Tier II Watchlist for TIP. Post is now working closely with the GOP and the relevant NGOs to develop a more comprehensive report on the status of TIP in Panama for the 2009 report. The publication of a list that includes Panama as having a significant incidence of the use of child labor in the production of pornography where no significant incidence exists or can be demonstrated will undermine both USG's credibility and the reporting process as a whole. Diplomatically, it will be difficult to give credence to a DOL report that makes a blatant end-run round the very reporting process that post has asked the GOP to embrace. The GOP, which has only recently and reluctantly become responsive to requests for information on child and forced labor, is less likely to embrace or participate in a process that it will likely assess has treated it wrongly and unjustly. Post will not be able to explain or defend such a finding by DOL, nor will post be able to include child pornography in the 2009 trafficking in persons report. This incongruity on the part of USG will be counter-productive to our efforts in partnering with Panama to promote transparency in reporting and ultimately in combating child labor and TIP. STEPHENSON