[Federal Register: May 12, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 91)]
[Notices]
[Page 25389-25390]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr12my03-94]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Bureau of International Labor Affairs
Notice of Final Determination Regarding Forced/Indentured Child
Labor Pursuant to Executive Order 13126
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Labor.
ACTION: Notice of final determination regarding forced child labor in
the firecracker industry in China.
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SUMMARY: This notice sets forth the final determination regarding a May
2001 submission, pursuant to Executive Order 13126 (``Prohibition of
Acquisition of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor'')
and alleging forced child labor in the firecracker industry in China.
The Department of Labor, in consultation and cooperation with the
Departments of Treasury and State, has determined that firecrackers
from China should not be added to final list of products prohibited
from acquisition under Executive Order 13126, based on the lack of
recent, credible and appropriately corroborated information indicating
that this product is being manufactured with forced or indentured child
labor. The review of this country/
[[Page 25390]]
product was conducted pursuant to Executive Order 13126 and the
Department's ``Procedural Guidelines for Maintenance of the List of
Products Requiring Federal Contractor Certification as to Forced or
Indentured Child Labor.''
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
Executive Order No. 13126, which was published in the Federal
Register on June 16, 1999 (64 FR 32383), declared that it was ``the
policy of the United States Government * * * that the executive
agencies shall take appropriate actions to enforce the laws prohibiting
the manufacture or importation of goods, wares articles, and
merchandise mined, produced or manufactured wholly or in part by forced
or indentured child labor''. Pursuant to the Executive Order, and
following public notice and comment, the Department of Labor published
in the January 18, 2001 Federal Register, a final list of products,
identified by their country of origin, that the Department, in
consultation and cooperation with the Departments of State and
Treasury, has a reasonable basis to believe might have been mined,
produced or manufactured with forced or indentured child labor. In
addition to this list, the Department of Labor also published on
January 18, 2001, a notice of procedural guidelines for maintaining,
reviewing, and, as appropriate, revising the list of products required
by Executive Order 13126. (66 FR 5351). The list of products can be
accessed on the Internet at http://www.dol.gov/ilab or can be obtained
from: International Child Labor Program (ICLP), Bureau of International
Labor Affairs, Room S-5307, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution
Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20210; telephone: (202) 693-4843; fax (202)
693-4830. A copy of the Procedural Guidelines is also available from
this office.
Pursuant to Section 3 of the Executive Order, the Federal
Acquisition Regulatory Councils published a final rule in the Federal
Register on January 18, 2001, providing that federal contractors who
supply products that appear on the list issued by the Department of
Labor must certify to the contracting officer that the contractor, or,
in the case of an incorporated contractor, a responsible official of
the contractor, has made a good faith effort to determine whether
forced or indentured child labor was used to mine, produce or
manufacture any product furnished under the contract and that, on the
basis of those efforts, the contractor is unaware of any such use of
child labor. (48 CFR subpart 22.15). The regulation also imposes other
requirements with respect to contracts for products on the list of
products.
II. China/Firecrackers Executive Order Submission
On June 29, 2001, the Department of Labor accepted for review a
submission under Executive Order 13126 regarding the use of forced
child labor in the firecracker industry in China. The submission, which
was provided by State Department Watch, consisted of a newspaper
article with information describing a March 2001 incident in which
children in Jiangxi Province, China were allegedly killed while being
forced to manufacture firecrackers at their school.
In accordance with the ``Procedural Guidelines for Maintenance of
the List,'' the Department initiated a review into the manufacturing of
this product using forced or indentured child labor in China. In
conducting the review, the Department focused on available information
concerning the use of forced or indentured child labor from a variety
of sources, including the Departments of State and Treasury,
nongovernmental organizations, and international organizations. In
addition, as part of its review effort, the Department released a
Federal Register notice on August 21, 2002, requesting information from
the public on the use of forced child labor in the manufacturing of
firecrackers in China. The Department of Labor received no responses to
the August 2002 notice. Through this review process, insufficient
recent and credible evidence was acquired to corroborate the news
article and to establish a reasonable basis to believe that this
product is being manufactured with forced or indentured child labor in
China.
III. Final Determination
In general, the Department of Labor considers and weighs several
factors in making determinations under the Executive Order: the nature
of the information describing the use of forced or indentured child
labor; the source of the information; the date of the information; the
extent of corroboration of the information by appropriate resources;
and whether the information involved more than an isolated incident. In
addition, the Department of Labor also takes into consideration whether
recent, credible efforts are being made to address forced or indentured
child labor in a particular country or industry.
Based on the lack of recent, credible and appropriately
corroborated information found through the review process to establish
a reasonable basis to believe that this product is manufactured with
forced or indentured child labor, and as the submitted news article is
insufficient by itself to establish such a basis, the Department of
Labor, after consulting with the Departments of Treasury and State, has
determined that firecrackers from China should not be added to the
Executive Order 13126 list of products.
Signed at Washington, DC this 30th day of April 2003.
Martha E. Newton,
Acting Deputy Under Secretary for International Labor Affairs.
[FR Doc. 03-11677 Filed 5-9-03; 8:45 am]
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