British company Tesco, the world's third largest retailer, has just announced that it intends to stop using cotton from Uzbekistan, the world's second largest exporter.
The decision comes on the heels of news of the findings of a study carried out by the charity The Environmental Justice Foundation (EFJ), which revealed that children constitute the majority of the cotton picking workforce in Uzbekistan.
“The use of organized and forced child labor is completely unacceptable and leads us to conclude that whilst these practices persist in Uzbekistan, we cannot support the use of cotton from Uzbekistan in our clothing," said Tery Green, CEO Tesco clothing and textiles process.
The company has also committed to stepping up monitoring of its supply chain, introducing greater transparency and traceability.
Steve Trent, Executive Director of EJF, hopes that others will now follow Tesco's lead.
As trade is increasingly liberalized, we must fight against practices that violate international standards, whether they apply to economic, environmental or social dumping. This is of even greater importance for the agricultural markets, where these practices are particularly rampant.
It is in this perspective that we are developing the NAR Assessment and Rating Agency, set to emerge in 2008 and slated to better inform public policymakers regarding the deficiencies of the world's agricultural markets.
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