Comment: Argentinean Blueberry Committee responds to Freshplaza 'slave labor' claim
By Argentinean Blueberry Committee (ABC) president Carlos Stabile
On Feb. 29, a news item concerning the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 - recently signed by U.S. President Barack Obama - was published in the press outlets Freshplaza.com and Freshplaza.es.
The headline of the story was 'Obama bans products made by slave labour', duly referring to Argentinean blueberries.
The story was not properly checked by the outlets which did not measure the damages that it could lead to for our product and country.
According to the Dutch Newsletter, the referred news was literally re published from a news portal called “Gokicker.com” without any proper check. This puts into debate this activity of re publishing any news without any “double check” and the risk of considerable and unfair image damaging.
Among the errors made in the story, slave labor was mentioned when in reality Argentine blueberries are not sanctioned by the United States in this regard. Also, the United States does not talk about slave labor but forced labor.
Thirdly, Freshplaza forgot to mention that the list, which features products from more than 350 countries, was drawn unilaterally by the United States Department of Labor (DOL). It is important to remember that a decision from the country to unilaterally prevent imports of hundreds of products from around the world would be against its international commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
I would like to say the following in response to Freshplaza's article:
Our sector is managed with complete transparency in all aspects and even more so in labor contracts. All our growers have international certifications of quality and frequently qualify for the SMETA and GRASP standards (among others), related to ethics and corporate social responsibility.
As well as the ABC, the Blueberry Producers’ Association of Mesopotamia Argentina (APAMA), the Blueberry Producers' Association of Tucumán (APRATUC) and the Argentine Chamber of Producers' of Blueberries and other Berries (CAPAB) are clearly against such reprehensible practices such as slave labor and work incessantly to prevent such instances.
Related story: U.S. ban on 'forced labor' imports does not target specific countries or products
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