R 292139Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY PANAMA
TO DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
SECSTATE WASHDC 2923
INFO WHA IM POSTS COLLECTIVE
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O N F I D E N T I A L PANAMA 000089 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2019 
TAGS: EIND ELAB ETRD PHUM SOCI KTIP
SUBJECT: PANAMA: COMMENT ON DOL DRAFT LIST FOR TVPRA 
 
REF: A. REF: (A) STATE 3075 
     ¶B. (B) BUENOS AIRES 00050 
 
 
Classified by Ambassador Barbara J. Stephenson.  Reasons: 1.4 
(b) and (d) 
 
¶1.  (SBU) This is an action request; see para 3. 
 
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Summary 
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¶2. (C) Regarding REFTEL A, Embassy Panama concurs with DOL's 
assessment that coffee is a good for which there is reason to 
believe is produced by child labor in violation of 
international standards.  Indeed, there is substantial expert 
consensus and evidentiary basis that child labor is used in 
the production of coffee.  Regarding sugarcane, post has 
reason to believe that the use of child labor in its 
production has been significantly reduced in the last three 
years.   Embassy Panama, however, requests that DOL remove 
pornography from the draft list of goods that DOL has reason 
to believe are produced by child labor in violation of 
international standards.  Post is concerned that DOL has not 
met its obligation to find a "significant incidence" of the 
use of child labor in the production of pornography in 
Panama.  Through its consultations with Panamanian labor 
experts, post has been unable to confirm any information to 
establish that pornography is a good for which there is 
reason to believe is produced with child labor.  REFTEL 
asserts that the only recourse given to post to remove 
pornography from the list is to prove its nonexistence. 
While post cannot prove a negative, post is aware that over 
the past year the GOP has taken appropriate criminal action 
and repressive steps against such heinous illicit activity 
and material.  Issuing a list that is not supported by 
substantiated evidence that pornography produced with child 
labor is an appreciable problem in Panama will: 
 
-- undermine the credibility of the TVPRA reporting process 
as a whole; 
 
-- greatly complicate post's efforts to advance efforts to 
combat trafficking in persons (TIP), including  trafficking 
involving children for commercial sexual exploitation; and 
 
-- put post in the unenviable position of having to defend 
diplomatically a decision that is not only not understood by 
post but unlikely to be accepted by natural allies in the 
field as a serious finding; and 
 
-- establish an unwarranted and sensational irritant to our 
bilateral relations and greatly complicate efforts to advance 
effective diplomacy in partnership with the GOP to confront 
and address serious child and forced labor challenges. 
 
If it is determined that there is a significant incidence of 
child labor in the production of pornography in Panama, post 
must be prepared to defend this finding to GOP; 
unfortunately, post is presently poorly equipped to do so. 
 
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Action Request 
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¶3.  (C)  Post requests that DOL make available the 
information at its disposal that allegedly substantiates its 
finding that pornography is a product in Panama produced 
using child labor.  Post requests the opportunity to review 
this information and to comment on it prior to publication of 
the list.  Should such substantiating information not be 
available or forthcoming, post requests DOL to remove 
pornography from the list of goods produced by child labor in 
Panama until a significant incidence can be shown and 
defended publicly. 
 
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Use of Appropriate Standard 
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¶4. (C) As noted by Embassy Buenos Aires (REFTEL B), according 
to the procedural guidelines published in the Federal 
Register on December 27, 2007, DOL is to consider whether 
corroborated evidence from various sources indicates a 
"significant incidence" of child labor, forced labor, or 
forced child labor in the production of the good in question. 
 Post concurs with Embassy Buenos Aires' interpretation of 
these guidelines that the burden of proof lies with DOL to 
show that there is a significant incidence of forced and/or 
child labor in the production of pornography in Panama.  On 
the basis of post's reporting efforts on TIP and child labor, 
such a showing cannot be made.  The GOP and NGOs uniformly 
report that there have only been two or three isolated cases 
of child pornography in the last two years, involving few 
children.  In one of these cases the perpetrator was an 
American retiree.  In its Request for Comment on DOL Draft 
List for TVPRA, DOL has requested not whether post has 
information indicating child or forced labor is being used in 
the production of pornography in Panama, but has apparently 
already made this finding from separate sources and now puts 
the burden on post to provide "information that clearly 
demonstrates that child labor or forced labor is not or is no 
longer used in the production" of pornography in order to 
remove it from the list.  Post cannot provide DOL with 
information clearly demonstrating that child labor is not 
used in the production of pornography, due to the isolated 
cases referred to above. Post can report with a fair degree 
of confidence that there is no significant incidence of child 
labor used in the production of pornography in Panama, based 
on the information it has received from various GOP agencies, 
NGOs and law enforcement.  However, post understands that, as 
laid out in REFTEL A, this information will not be factored 
into DOL's findings based on the current evidentiary burden. 

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Impact on Current Efforts in TIP 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) Panama is currently on the Tier II Watchlist for TIP. 
Post is now working closely with the GOP and the relevant 
NGOs to develop a more comprehensive report on the status of 
TIP in Panama for the 2009 report.  The publication of a list 
that includes Panama as having a significant incidence of the 
use of child labor in the production of pornography where no 
significant incidence exists or can be demonstrated will 
undermine both USG's credibility and the reporting process as 
a whole.   Diplomatically, it will be difficult to give 
credence to a DOL report that makes a blatant end-run round 
the very reporting process that post has asked the GOP to 
embrace.  The GOP, which has only recently and reluctantly 
become responsive to requests for information on child and 
forced labor, is less likely to embrace or participate in a 
process that it will likely assess has treated it wrongly and 
unjustly.  Post will not be able to explain or defend such a 
finding by DOL, nor will post be able to include child 
pornography in the 2009 trafficking in persons report.  This 
incongruity on the part of USG will be counter-productive to 
our efforts in partnering with Panama to promote transparency 
in reporting and ultimately in combating child labor and TIP. 
 
 
STEPHENSON