Phiphat orders speedy efforts to cut Thai products from US blacklists
US government alleges abuse of child labour in certain cases
Labour Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn has instructed officials to work with relevant private agencies to try to remove three Thai end products from being blacklisted by the US government for using child labour, the ministry spokesman said on Sunday.
Phumphat Muanchan said Phiphat issued the order after reports for 2024 by the US Department of Labor showed that three end products – fish meal, pet foods and fish oil – that use fish as raw materials were blacklisted for allegedly using child labour.
Phumphat said the three products were blacklisted in the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA list) of 2005 and in the List of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor mandated by Executive Order 13126 (EO list).
Phumphat said Phiphat had ordered the permanent secretary for the Labour Ministry to set up a committee to work with the Thai Tuna Industry Association, the Thai Pet Food Trade Association and government agencies to initiate measures for removing the products from US blacklists as soon as possible.
Phumphat said the labour minister realised the impact from the blacklisting because Thailand exported more US$1 billion worth of pet foods and fishery products to the United States each year.
The spokesman said the Thai agencies had studied the latest report of the US Labor Department and found that the report was inaccurate about the three end products.
Phumphat said Thailand did not have to try to remove fish from the TVPRA list and EO list right away but could send a report to affirm that no child or forced labour was used in making the three end products and ask the US Labor Department to correct the two lists.
Currently, five Thai products are blacklisted on the TVPRA list – shrimps, fish, sugarcane, clothing and pornographic media – and one on the EO list – clothing.
Phumphat said the permanent secretary was also instructed by Phiphat to try to remove these raw-material products from the lists as well.
Phumphat said that during the past two years, Thailand had been trying to solve the issue of child and forced labour in all manufacturing, and the efforts prompted the removal of shrimps from the EO list.
He said sugarcane harvesting has also been carried out by machines, so the Labour Ministry was asking its US counterpart to remove it from the TVPRA list as well.
