VZCZCXYZ0024
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHQT #0069 0291553
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 291553Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY QUITO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9970
INFO RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 7941
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 3364
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ JAN LIMA 3007
RUEHGL/AMCONSUL GUAYAQUIL 4064

UNCLAS QUITO 000069 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EIND ELAB ETRD PHUM SOCI KTIP EC
SUBJECT: COMMENT ON DOL DRAFT LIST FOR TVPRA 
 
REFTEL: STATE 1730 
 
¶1.  In response to the Department of State and Department of Labor 
request (reftel), post submits the following comment on the 
Department of Labor's draft list of goods that may be produced with 
forced labor or child labor in Ecuador.  Please note Post's 
recommendation in paragraph 5. 
 
¶2.  The majority of Ecuador's child labor is informal, with children 
working alongside their families in family-run businesses, which are 
difficult to regulate.  This exists in the agricultural sector, in 
the harvest of bananas and flowers, and in small-scale mining. 
Formal industry and businesses are better regulated and child labor 
is uncommon; many formal businesses work to eliminate child labor. 
The GOE, NGOs and other institutions are taking steps to combat 
child labor in Ecuador.  Article 46 of the constitution, which was 
approved in a referendum on September 28, 2008, states that the 
central government will adopt measures to assure the protection of 
children and adolescents against labor exploitation and implement 
policies to eradicate child labor.  It states that minors under 15 
years old are prohibited from working, and that adolescents may only 
work in exceptional cases that do not infringe upon their right to 
education or endanger their health or development.  However, more 
needs to be done in the enforcement of child labor laws. 
¶3.  Flowers:  In the formal flower industry, companies affiliated 
with the export flower association "Expoflores" are inspected and 
receive a special certification verifying that child labor does not 
exist in their companies.  The association participated with the 
Ministry of Labor, CORPEI (Ecuador's export promotion agency), the 
ILO, and several government institutions in a program sponsored by 
the ILO to eradicate child labor from the flower industry in 2005. 
However, according to flower industry experts, children still work 
on some flower farms in the informal flower sector, albeit not in 
the overall flower sector.  Children working in the sector mostly 
produce flowers for local sale in small, family-run informal 
businesses.  Larger, formal flower businesses go to significant 
lengths to combat child labor. 
 
¶4.  Gold:  Ecuador's Mining Chamber, along with the Ministry of 
Labor and the Ministry of Petroleum and Mines, has worked to help 
eliminate child labor from the mining sector.  However, in the 
informal mining sector, families involved in small-scale gold mining 
often have their children help with the family business, similar to 
the flower sector. 
 
¶5.  Recommendation:  Post recommends that any published DOL report 
clearly note that even if child labor exists in a particular sector, 
this does not necessarily imply that all or even most producers in 
that sector use child labor.  As we have noted in this cable, in 
Ecuador there is an important difference in how child labor is 
addressed by small, family businesses in the informal sector and 
large businesses in the formal sector. 
 
HODGES