Slaves To Fashion Import Laws Fail To Address Child Labor Congress Under New Pressure To Place Limits On Trade Deals

The images sear the national conscience: A 3-year-old Pakistani girl working on a soccer ball for an American company. Rows of Salvadoran youths staring up from an ancient loom. Dickensian “masters” presiding over Asian sweatshops.

The Buchanan campaign, with its attacks on global free trade, is fading away, but public fears about possible trade and labor abuses continue to grow. Revelations about the alleged use of children from Third World countries to make products for U.S. labels - including some endorsed by celebrities such as Kathie Lee Gifford and Michael Jordan - have opened a new line of attack on free-trade agreements, which some people contend are being used to exploit workers in poor countries.

Congress is under new pressure to enact tougher labor and environmental restrictions into upcoming “fast-track” trade legislation. A House committee held hearings on the child-labor issue last month, and members of the House and Senate have filed three bills designed to curb imports from countries that egregiously abuse child workers.

Though President Clinton and Bob Dole have supported free-trade agreements, the issue has yet to figure in the race.

“This is one area where congressional Democrats have some differences with the president,” said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a co-sponsor of a bill requiring the State Department to monitor child labor.

“The problem is the president is ambivalent about the extent to which you build in worker and environmental standards to trade agreements because economic purists tell him it’s a bad thing.”

“All the trade agreements have in them articles and loopholes to exempt exploitative labor practices,” argued one official. The White House has called together representatives of the Labor, Commerce, State and Treasury departments in hope of formulating an administration position.

Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., said the dire conditions in some Third World factories - children in Pakistan can be sold into servitude for $16, according to Life magazine - cast doubts on assertions by Clinton and Dole that U.S. trade boosts the standard of living of foreign workers.

Sanders and U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, have proposed a bill banning the importation of products made by children. Yet another bill would ban foreign aid to countries with abusive child-labor policies.

Public concern over labor conditions in the Third World has been mounting since last year, fueled by a series of attacks on U.S. retailers for allegedly exploiting workers. First targeted was the Gap. Human-rights activists accused the retailer of producing some of its fashions at an El Salvador factory that employed 14-year-olds for shifts as long as 21 hours for 18 cents an hour.

After initially defending its practices, the Gap acknowledged discovering abuses by its Salvadoran contractor. A settlement mandated that working conditions be improved.

In April, advocates targeted Gifford, the co-host of “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee.” Some of her product line for Wal-Mart was made in Honduras, by children earning 31 cents an hour. She denied knowledge of the factory conditions and Wal-Mart cut ties to the plant.

More recently, Michael Jordan, the most prominent endorser of Nike products, was accused by the Made in the USA Foundation of having his “Air Jordan” running shoes made by children in Indonesia. Nike disputed the accusation, saying that Air Jordans were manufactured in Taiwan. Thirty-five other Nike lines were made in Indonesia, however, where workers earned an average of 45 cents per hour.

Nike spokeswoman Donna Gibbs said the company mandates that contractors comply with local child-labor laws. The problem, she said, is that such laws are not enforced in some countries.

“We live in an imperfect world and all we can do is monitor the situation as best as we can,” Gibbs said.

Sometimes monitoring doesn’t work. Life magazine published photographs of Pakistani children as young as 3 stitching soccer balls for companies including Nike. In factories, slavery conditions prevail. Children are bonded to “masters,” who supervise their work days.

“All you can do is engage the situation and make it better,” Gibbs said.

“If we take our 40,000 balls and go home that wouldn’t change child labor in Pakistan.”