Stopping scandal of child labour

Madam, - Justin Kilcullen (Opinion & Analysis, April 10th) records the great public response to the Trócaire Lenten campaign…

Madam, - Justin Kilcullen (Opinion & Analysis, April 10th) records the great public response to the Trócaire Lenten campaign highlighting the scandal of child labour.

I wonder whether he is right when he says that "the primary cause of child labour in the developing world is poverty". Child labour is used in the developing world because it is cheaper than adult labour.

Child labour is not provided in addition to adult labour: It replaces it. Very often children in the developing world are the sole earners in families. In this sense child labour is not caused by poverty. It is caused by the combined effect of unscrupulous employers willing to employ children and deficient governments unwilling or unable to regulate the labour market. If child labour was outlawed, work currently done by children would be done by their parents.

Mr Kilcullen asks what role Ireland can play in "eliminating this scandal". His useful suggestions focus on the role of the International Labour Organisation and on ensuring our voice is heard in various international organisations.

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I find it odd that Trócaire does not insist that the World trade Organisation place child labour at the centre of the Doha round of negotiations currently under way.

It is even odder that the Vatican failed to do so when negotiations began. (The Vatican was represented by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.) These negotiations were originally designed to assist developing countries to participate in world trade, thereby helping to eliminate poverty. However, most developing countries lobbied against the inclusion of high labour standards as a condition for access to foreign markets. Apparently, many poor countries are keen to maintain the competitive advantage they obtain from poor labour and industrial practices including the use of children in sweat shops.

But poor countries are not the only wrongdoers. Consumers of the first world have an insatiable appetite for cheap goods. If those great-value runners had a label declaring "Produced by Child Labour", not even the most tenacious bargain hunter would buy them. Manufacturers would quickly abandon the brutal practice of child labour.

The EU represents its 25 member-states in these WTO negotiations. It has the clout to ignore the self-interested pleas of developing countries which insist on the right to trade goods manufactured by children. I believe that the EU must come back to this issue and declare that goods made by children are unwelcome in our shops. As matters stand, Ireland would be acting unlawfully if it prohibited or placed tariffs on such goods. This is unacceptable.

So, to Mr Kilcullen's list of things Ireland can do, I would add one more item. Any minister or official attending trade meetings at the EU Commission and all our MEPs should demand that labour standards be put back on the WTO agenda.

It may be too late for the current Doha round, but I look forward to the next chapter in the life of the WTO where labour and environmental standards become key conditions for trading goods globally. - Yours, etc,

COLM MAC EOCHAIDH, The Wooden Building, Exchange Street Upper, Dublin 8.