Category Archives: Op-eds

Donald Trump

Donald Trump has discovered the virtues of fighting forced labour—provided he does not look too closely at America’s record.

This week he slapped tariffs of 10-12.5 percent on 60 countries—including the UK—because they imported goods from countries that used forced or abusive labour.

Well, so does the United States. In fact, several of its home-grown companies have, in fact, been prosecuted for using forced labour. And this is according to reports from America’s State Department, the Department of Justice and the Department of Labour.

But first the issue of importation. Trump is on reasonably firm ground using the issue of abusive labour practices to try replacing his first illegal round of tariffs with a fresh batch. Since 1930, there has been a law prohibiting the importation of goods produced by abusive labour practices.

However, that law is almost impossible to enforce. If it was it would result in a wide ban on Chinese goods. America’s chocolate manufacturers would be unable to import the cocoa from Ghana and the Ivory Coast that it needs to satisfy millions of sweet tooth Americans. There would be virtually no rubber or palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia nor sugar from the Dominican Republic. And the above list is only a small sample of the affected products.

The fact is that today’s world of complicated supply chains involving multiple countries makes it virtually impossible to identify products that involve forced labour.

But on to the United States where employers exploit the legal vulnerability of undocumented workers to indulge in abusive labour practices in agriculture, hospitality, construction and domestic service. Every year the Department of Labour and the Justice Department prosecute numerous cases involving migrants. American employers use their illegal status to hold them in debt bondages, confiscate their passports, threaten them with deportation and force them to work up to 17 hours a day.

Not all the offences involve immigrants. The DOJ reports rising incidences of child labour, particularly in meat processing plants. One of the recent high-profile cases involved more than 100 children working overnight to clean dangerous meat processing equipment. The company was fined $1.5 million.

Perhaps  the most controversial labour abuse involves American prisons. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery “accept as a punishment for crime.” Many American prisons are managed by private companies who use the prisoners to secure production contracts for which the prisoners are paid miniscule wages or nothing.

When it comes to labour abuses, the United States is living in a glass house, and President Trump has just thrown a set of bricks through several panes.

Iran

Trump’s Iran War may yet claim another strategic victim—nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East.

For decades it has been an unshakable tenet of US—nay, Western—foreign policy that everything possible should be done to prevent the spread of nuclear technology in the strategically vital but highly unstable Middle East.

Israel was the exception. It is believed to have an estimated 60 nuclear weapons. They have served their purpose in deterring an Arab state attack since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. And besides, there was little that the US could do to prevent Israel from acquiring the bomb.

Nuclear non-proliferation in the region is the stated main purpose of America’s current war with Iran. And Trump’s apparent failure to stop the Iranians must be behind this week’s announcement that Washington will help Saudi Arabia develop a nuclear industry.

The Saudis’ Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has made it clear on several occasions that if Iran develops a nuclear weapon than Saudi Arabia must also have one to protect itself from attack from its age-old on the opposite shore of the Persian Gulf.

The Washington announcement said that the provision of the technology would be accompanied by regular visits from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure that the Saudis are not using the expertise to develop a weapon. But then, the IAEA also conducted regular checks on the Iranians.