March 18, 2014
Thailand''s shrimp industry may face problem of US downgrade
In case the United Statesdecides to downgrade Thailand to a Tier three ranking on its human trafficking report, Thailand''s shrimp industry, as it recovers from the worst disease pandemic to hit in recent history, will be greatly affected.
This is according to Siam Canadian''s founder and group managing director Jim Gulkin, who supplies the United Stateswith shrimp from Thailand.
The said rating would technically mean the United Statesgovernment would not do business with Thailand and major retailers would refuse to do business with Thailand as well, Gulkin said.
He also said that many major United Statesretailers have already signed an agreement to cooperate with the United Statesgovernment to ban all products from countries that are ranked Tier three.
This, of course, would cause huge problems for the Thai seafood industry, which exports 70% to80% of its seafood to the United States, Gulkin said.
According to the United StatesDepartment of State''s definition of a Tier three status, governments that are under a Tier three may have certain sanctions imposed upon them by the United States government, although those "can be waived if the President determines that the provision of such assistance to the government would promote the purposes of the statute or is otherwise in the US national interest."
Yet Gulkin surmises that in practice, a Tier three status would be so damaging to the reputation of the country that it would cause United Statesbuyers to turn off trade with the country, effectively shutting outthe entire Thai shrimp industryfrom the United States.
A Tier three status is the lowest status the United Statesgives to countries on its human trafficking report, and it would put Thailand at the same level, in terms of human trafficking, as Iran and North Korea, said Gulkin.
The status is a huge black mark, as it means a government not only implicates the country with a host of abominable human rights violations- among them slavery, sex trafficking, and unlawful recruitment of child soldiers and more- it also means that the government is not making any significant effort to combat the problems.
This is particularly problematic, considering that even a Tier one status allows for some imperfections. A country is allowed to have some issues with human trafficking and still be in a Tier one status as long as the government is making significant efforts against it.
Gulkin, whose Thailand-based company has been selling farmed shrimp from the country since 1987, has never heard of any instances of human trafficking in the shrimp farming industry.
Unfortunately, the United Statesevaluates countries'' human trafficking statuses on a country-by-country basis, without separating particular industries, and problems in the fishing industry persist.
According to a recent report released by the Environmental Justice Foundation, itfound that human trafficking in Thailand remains rampant, and investigative reporters such as Shannon Service reveal horrific stories, such as that of a Cambodian who was "locked in a warehouse, sold for US$300 and forced to work a Thai fishing boat for three years under unimaginable conditions."