PAF ProActive File - Regular News Update from Eurostep

No. 351

19 March 2004

  1. EU Policy on Child Labour Virtually Non-Existent


A group of NGOs - including Hivos from Denmark, Concern from Ireland and Welthungerhilfe from Germany - part of the campaign "Stop child labour - school is the best place to work" have criticised the EU over its lack of policy on child labour. They point out that the Commission has no unit dealing specifically with the issue and the Union's institutions consider child labour and education as separate issues, although the Commission agrees that providing the largest possible number of children with access to school is also a way of combating child labour. The experiences of an Indian NGO campaign against child labour have been positive, according to Santha Sinha from the M. Venkatarangaiya Foundation they have, in the past 10 years, succeeded in enrolling and retaining nearly 150,000 children in school. Ten years ago only around 60% of the children in the southern Indian province of Andhra Pradesh were attending to school, but thanks to concerted efforts by civil society groups and the regional government the rate is now closer to 95% in some parts of the province.

Despite the progress made, the International Labour Organisation estimates that there are still 246 million children between the ages 5 and 17 who are working regularly, instead of attending school. The NGOs are calling for the EU to create a coherent policy on the elimination of child labour, linked to the provision of full-time formal education for all children up to 14 years of age. They also want the EU Member States to allocate at least 8 percent of their Overseas Development Aid (ODA) to primary education and to make provisions in ODA to ensure that especially girls and young children from vulnerable groups, such as those living in absolute poverty are integrated into the school system.

There is  a gender division in education: it is difficult to get girls into school, since it is still widely believed that girls do not need to be educated, because of their role as future housewives. In some societies, girls are also often married at an early age which disrupts their education. Another group with poor education rates are children from ethnic minorities, handicapped children and those living in absolute poverty. The NGOs are calling for extra measures in aid implementation to ensure that these groups are brought into the formal education system.

2. Civil Society Study on EU-ACP Trade Arrangements

On Tuesday 30 March, Eurostep, together with partner organisations in ACP countries, is launching a report titled "New ACP-EU Trade Arrangements: New Barriers to Eradicating Poverty?". The report focuses on the issue of removal of barriers to trade in the ACP-EU trade arrangements and its consequences for ACP countries. Its aim as an independent civil society work is to examine how the proposed free trade based regional agreements affect the fight against poverty in five ACP countries: Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Benin and Cameroon.

The study will be presented to the Commission by the researchers on Tuesday 30 March 14.30-18.00 at the Centre Borschette, Brussels. If you wish to participate, please register through the Commission's Civil Society Dialogue website.

3. Second Phase of Sustainability Impact Assessments

The Sustainability Impact Assesments (SIA) of the future trade arrangements between the EU and ACP countries is now moving to its second phase. In it the consortium contracted to carry out the assessments is proposing to focus on the fisheries sector in Western Africa, on food crops in Southern and Eastern Africa, on the textiles industry in Central Africa and on the tourism sector in the Caribbean. The Consortium is calling for all interested parties to comment on the choice of these sectors before Friday, March 26th.

4. Jamaican Dairy Sector Undermined by Imports

In Jamaica falling milk prices and demand are forcing dairy farmers out of business, they say they are unable to compete with subsidised milk imports from the European Union (EU). Aubrey Taylor from the Jamaican Dairy Farmers Federation (JDFF), says the subsidies allow European farmers to produce milk at half the cost of their Jamaican counterparts. At 1,420 U.S. dollars a tonne, manufacturers here find it cheaper to import milk powder than to buy fresh milk from local farmers, says the federation, dismissing claims that Jamaican producers cannot competitively meet demand. What local farmers need, they say, is a level playing field. According to Taylor, the milk imports have also led to economic and social decline in rural communities.

The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) reported in 2002, that the EU, which provided 67 per cent of Jamaica's milk powder imports in 2000, is ”the most heavily supported agricultural regime in the world”. The EU spends more than 4.9 million U.S. dollars each year subsidising milk powder to Jamaica alone, this is more than 166 times the island's entire 2003-4 agriculture budget. In the last 10 years, Jamaican farmers have seen their market share for local milk slip from 24 percent to 4.2 per cent. The government has taken many initiatives since then but has failed to rescue the dairy industry. In 1996, it levied import tariffs of 30-40 per cent on milk imports, which allowed a brief period of recovery and a hike in production to 28 million litres by 1999. But in 2002, production fell to 20.4 million litres.

The tariffs failed to work, Taylor explains, because of a loophole that allowed importers to take advantage of the five-per-cent duty on milk imports given manufacturers. A study carried out by international accounting firm KPMG for the Jamaican Anti-Dumping Advisory Board concluded that the EU and United States were dumping milk products on the Jamaican market. Government refused to implement the recommendations because it feared retaliation by the two world giants, says Taylor. He believes the government lacks the political will to confront international lending agencies, and to implement the World Trade Organisation's special safeguard provision of the Agreement on Agriculture, which is designed as an easy way for developing countries to protect themselves from dumping.

Many in Jamaica believe that the government's hands are tied by the conditions imposed by loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, and by the country's dependence on banana and sugar export quotas provided by the EU. The president of the World Bank James Wolfensohn admitted in a TVE documentary on the subject that the World Bank must accept some blame for the demise of local industries, after it encouraged developing countries to open up their markets to unfair competition. 

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