Tax dodging by big firms ‘robs poor countries of billions of dollars a year’

Loved the article. It's astonishing how large, multinational corporations, like Apple, Starbucks, Wal-Mart etc., move around their money, to take advantage of the lowest taxes possible. It doesn't affect them at all, & actually, their tax managers are rewarded further for helping the corporation & its investors save taxes. But, then these same corporations pay meagre wages to their employees (who then need social services, which are paid by taxes), & take advantage of other social services or infrastructure, paid for by the taxes.

Since, somebody gotta pick up the tab for all those social services & government expenses, & rich individuals dodge the taxes through offshore banking & corporations dodge the taxes through effective use of transfer pricing, the poor of the country gets the bills of the nation.

I'd call this "corruption". These corporations are all tout the horn of "ethics" but then find the first loophole in the law to dodge their fair responsibility. Ironically, when it's done in developing countries, it's called "corruption" & when it's done in developed countries, it's called "effective & efficient use of the law."
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http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jun/02/tax-dodging-big-companies-costs-poor-countries-billions-dollars

The international corporate tax system is outdated, unfair & will continue to cost developing countries tens of billions of dollars in lost revenues each year unless it is completely overhauled, a coalition of charities & civil society organisations has warned.

In a report ..., the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (Icrict), which was initiated by the charities & other organisations, argues that globalisation has rendered the century-old global tax system obsolete as more & more companies trade within related corporate structures.

“Tax abuse by multinational corporations increases the tax burden on other taxpayers, violates the corporations’ civic obligations, robs developed & developing countries of critical resources to fight poverty & fund public services, exacerbates income inequality, & increases developing country reliance on foreign assistance,” says the report.

On a more basic level, it adds, the tax policies of one country can have a dire effect on other countries’ ability to raise taxes that could be spent on education, healthcare & safe roads.

The report calls for the abolition of the separate entity principle, arguing that it allows huge multinational companies to dodge their tax obligations by presenting their operations in different countries as completely independent of one another. The principle permits them to shift their profits to countries with low or zero tax rates – & to move their losses into countries where taxes are higher.

“The primary enabler of international corporate tax abuse is the separate entity principle – a legal fiction that enables the flow of vast amounts of taxable income away from the underlying business operations,” it says.

“We believe the only effective way to stop this abuse is to treat multinational corporations as single & unified firms & divide the taxable profits between the countries where the income generating activities are located. If multinational corporations were taxed as single & unified firms, there would be no transfer pricing because global corporate profits would be consolidated, & thus no profits would be gained or lost through intra-company transactions.”

The report ... also calls for rich countries to agree a minimum corporate tax rate to stop “the global race to the bottom”.

“While each country is responsible for its own tax system, no country is unaffected by the tax system of others,” it says. “In addition to evaluation of the effectiveness of tax preferences, countries should also examine spillovers caused by their tax preferences for multinational corporations.”

Toby Quantrill, principal economic justice adviser at Christian Aid – which is part of the Icrict coalition – said drastic action was required when it came to retooling the international tax system.

“These ideas will be seen by many as radical,” he said. “Such changes will not be easy to implement & will not happen overnight. But as many people know, acknowledging the reality & severity of a problem can be the first step to recovery.”

Quantrill said that although the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) had launched a plan to tackle multinational tax dodging, it was focusing on the symptoms rather than the causes.

“As a number of reports & analyses are showing, its work so far will be limited in its impact in richer countries & simply will not deal with the fundamental problem for poor countries,” he said.

“As an organisation often described as a ‘rich countries club’, it is hardly surprising that the OECD has not prioritised the problems faced by the poorest countries. And let’s be clear, these problems are significant.”

A recent report by the UN Conference on Trade & Development estimated that profit-shifting by multinational companies costs developing countries $100 billion a year in lost corporate income tax. Another report, by IMF researchers, estimated that developing countries may be losing as much as $213 billion a year to tax avoidance.

Oxfam – which published its own report on tax avoidance ... – says that corporate tax avoidance in the form of trade mispricing by G7-based companies & investors cost Africa $6 billion in 2010 alone. According to the NGO, the sum is more than 3 times the amount needed to improve the healthcare systems in the Ebola-affected countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea & at-risk Guinea Bissau.

Oxfam & others are calling for the British government to introduce a tax-dodging bill that would oblige UK companies to pay tax in the countries where they operate – & would also make it harder for big companies to avoid paying tax in the UK.

“Multinational companies, many with headquarters in the UK & other G7 countries, are cheating African countries out of billions of dollars in vital tax revenues that could help vulnerable people get decent healthcare & send their children to school,” said Nick Bryer, Oxfam’s head of UK campaigns.

“To fund the fight against poverty & to tackle worsening extreme inequality, we need action to ensure big companies pay their fair share, here & in the world’s poorest nations.”

Here's how much corporations paid US senators to fast-track the TPP bill

Since, Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is already well on its way to being passed ... & going to destroy North American labour market, I won't say much here. What I liked about this article was the facts & figures of how much each of the Senators in the American Senate received money from corporations which wanted TPP to pass so desperately. (Hint: the money they received is more than an average, middle class, American may make in a year).

On a side note, you should realize that if corporations are so desperate to want to get TPP passed, then it is definitely not going to be something good for the average Joe & Jane on main street.

Getting back to the main topic, as always, I would ask the reader that would you call this a democracy? Does this happen in a transparent & democratic government where Senators (one of them is 81 years old) receive such lucrative "gifts", while signing on a trade partnership, which will only going to kill any & all kinds of labour movements? Is this trade partnership going to help that single mother who is juggling multiple jobs to raise her little family while the rich Senators get more rich by voting for a trade partnership that will destroy her job & not raise her minimum wage? What about that poor student who is trying to brighten up his future by working part-time & getting a degree?

As I always say, political corruption exists everywhere. The primary difference is that it happens all out in the open in so-called "corrupt" countries (i.e. developing countries), whereas, in developed countries, those same "corrupt" practices are first made "legal". Since, the same "corrupt" practices become "legal", government officials are free to indulge in them as much as they want, & the governments of North America & Europe get the blessing of Transparency International (the organization, which is a joke in my view, similar to UN, World Bank, IMF etc.)

As the spokesperson for anti-corruption group, Represent Us, says in the end of the article that “how can we expect politicians who routinely receive campaign money, lucrative job offers, & lavish gifts from special interests to make impartial decisions that directly affect those same special interests? As long as this kind of transparently corrupt behavior remains legal, we won’t have a government that truly represents the people.”
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http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/may/27/corporations-paid-us-senators-fast-track-tpp

A decade in the making, the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is reaching its climax & as Congress hotly debates the biggest trade deal in a generation, its backers have turned on the cash spigot in the hopes of getting it passed.
...

Fast-tracking the TPP, meaning its passage through Congress without having its contents available for debate or amendments, was only possible after lots of corporate money exchanged hands with senators. ...

Those impressive majorities follow months of behind-the-scenes wheeling & dealing by the world’s most well-heeled multinational corporations with just a handful of holdouts.

Using data from the Federal Election Commission, this chart shows all donations that corporate members of the US Business Coalition for TPP made to US Senate campaigns between January & March 2015, when fast-tracking the TPP was being debated in the Senate:

- Out of the total $1,148,971 given, an average of $17,676.48 was donated to each of the 65 “yea” votes.

- The average Republican member received $19,673.28 from corporate TPP supporters.

- The average Democrat received $9,689.23 from those same donors.

The amounts given rise dramatically when looking at how much each senator running for re-election received.

Two days before the fast-track vote, Obama was a few votes shy of having the filibuster-proof majority he needed. Ron Wyden & 7 other Senate Democrats announced they were on the fence on 12 May, distinguishing themselves from the Senate’s 54 Republicans & handful of Democrats as the votes to sway.

- In just 24 hours, Wyden & 5 of those Democratic holdouts – Michael Bennet of Colorado, Dianne Feinstein of California, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Patty Murray of Washington, & Bill Nelson of Florida – caved & voted for fast-track.

- Bennet, Murray, & Wyden – all running for re-election in 2016 – received $105,900 between the 3 of them. Bennet, who comes from ... Colorado, got $53,700 in corporate campaign donations between January & March 2015 ... .

- Almost 100% of the Republicans in the US Senate voted for fast-track – the only two non-votes on TPA were a Republican from Louisiana & a Republican from Alaska.

- Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who is the former US trade representative, ... received $119,700 from 14 different corporations between January & March, most of which comes from donations from Goldman Sachs ($70,600), Pfizer ($15,700), & Procter & Gamble ($12,900). ...

- 7 Republicans who voted “yea” to fast-track & are also running for re-election next year cleaned up between January & March. Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia received $102,500 in corporate contributions. Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, best known for proposing a Monsanto-written bill in 2013 that became known as the Monsanto Protection Act, received $77,900 – $13,500 of which came from Monsanto.

- Arizona senator & former presidential candidate John McCain received $51,700 in the first quarter of 2015. Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina received $60,000 in corporate donations. Eighty-one-year-old senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who is running for his 7th Senate term, received $35,000. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who will be running for his first full six-year term in 2016, received $67,500 from pro-TPP corporations.

“It’s a rare thing for members of Congress to go against the money these days,” said Mansur Gidfar, spokesman for the anti-corruption group Represent.Us. “They know exactly which special interests they need to keep happy if they want to fund their reelection campaigns or secure a future job as a lobbyist.

“How can we expect politicians who routinely receive campaign money, lucrative job offers, & lavish gifts from special interests to make impartial decisions that directly affect those same special interests?” Gidfar said. “As long as this kind of transparently corrupt behavior remains legal, we won’t have a government that truly represents the people.”

The $18 Billion arms race helping to fuel Middle East conflict

Nothing much to say here (since, I've blogged quite a few times how members of the UN Security Council & developed countries sell weapons & arms to developing countries to keep destabilizing those regions).

The Middle East is destabilizing & turning into a war zone very rapidly, thanks to the developed countries' constant need to sell arms & ammunition to these countries, & when these weapons are used by these countries against each other or against their own public, we in the West decry how "uncivilized" these people in Middle East are.

Canada used to be considered a peaceful nation. Now, "the one Canadian deal alone – to supply Saudi Arabia with light armoured vehicles – will account for 20% of the military vehicles sold globally in years covered by the contract." That's how much Canada has changed in the global weapons market.

Why don't these developed countries sell green energy, for instance, to these developing countries? Wouldn't that be a much better investment to make the world a better place? That move alone, for instance, wouldn't create so many refugees, either, which in itself, is creating another migrant crisis in the developed countries of Europe.

Developed countries have so much modern technology in non-arms area that they could & can easily sell that technology hardware & software to developing countries & regions, & help improve lives for all. It does happen but compared to billions of weapons transactions, these transactions have not much scope & influence.

So, if we want peace in this world, the first step is to stop the developed countries to stop giving weapons to the madmen of developing countries. Who is willing to take this first step? (Per my answer, not even one developed country).
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/23/the-18bn-arms-race-middle-east-russia-iran-iraq-un

The Middle East is plunging deeper into an arms race, with an estimated $18 billion expected to be spent on weapons this year, a development that experts warn is fuelling serious tension & conflict in the region.

Given the unprecedented levels of weapon sales by the west (including the US, Canada & the UK) to the mainly Sunni Gulf states, Vladimir Putin’s decision ... to allow the controversial delivery of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran ... seems likely to accelerate the proliferation.

That will see agreed arms sales to the top 5 purchasers in the region - Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Egypt & Iraq – surge this year to more than $18 billion, up from $12 billion last year. Among the systems being purchased are jet fighters, missiles, armoured vehicles, drones & helicopters.

The Russian declaration came only 2 days before Iraq’s prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, disclosed that he was seeking arms worth billions of dollars from Washington – with payment deferred – for the battle against Islamic State (Isis).

Last week France’s foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, disclosed progress in talks to sell Rafale fighter jets to the UAE, one of the Middle East’s biggest & most aggressive arms buyers.

With conflicts raging in Syria, Iraq, Libya & Yemen, & with Egypt also battling Islamist extremists in the Sinai, the signs that Russia is preparing to increase its own arms sales – & to the Gulf states’ biggest rival, Iran – are raising fears that tensions will be stoked further still. In particular, Saudi Arabia & Iran are facing off in the conflict in Yemen ... .

According to the New York Times, defence industry officials have notified Congress that they are expecting additional requests from Arab states fighting Isis – Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan & Egypt – for thousands of new US-made weapons, including missiles & bombs, to rebuild depleted arms stockpiles.

Ironically, among the key weapons suppliers in the arms race are permanent members of the UN security council who have been at the centre of 2 unconventional arms control initiatives – disarming the Syrian government’s stockpiles of chemical weapons & negotiating for a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme.

The scale of the arms race was revealed this year in reports published by IHS Jane’s Global Defence Trade Report & the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). They showed how Saudi Arabia had become the world’s largest importer of weapons & fourth largest military spender & that other Middle East states were sharply increasing their arms purchases.

Adding to the concern is the fact that the spending spree on arms comes against the background of a marked increase in military interventions by countries in the region since the Arab spring in 2011. Saudi Arabia has intervened in Bahrain (at the request of that kingdom’s ruler during the so-called Pearl revolution), in Yemen in 2009 & again in Yemen this year.

And among those concerned by Saudi’s new military assertiveness - on the back of its arms buying spree - was the Iraqi prime minister, Abadi. “The dangerous thing is, we don’t know what the Saudis want to do after [their intervention in Yemen],” Abadi told US reporters last week. “Is Iraq within their radar? That’s very, very dangerous. The idea that you intervene in another state unprovoked just for regional ambition is wrong. Saddam has done it before. See what it has done to the country.”

And if the Saudi intervention in Yemen has been overt, no less real has been the proxy conflict that has set Iran & the Gulf states against each other in Syria, where Tehran has backed the government of Bashar al-Assad with military assistance & weapons, & Gulf states have backed different rebel groups, including Islamist ones.

“It’s crazy,” says Ben Moores, author of IHS Jane’s annual report on arms buying trends. “The one Canadian deal alone – to supply Saudi Arabia with light armoured vehicles – will account for 20% of the military vehicles sold globally in years covered by the contract. And this is just the thin edge of the wedge. Saudi has booked enough arms imports in 24 months for them to be worth $10 billion a year.”

While some countries, such as Kuwait, are in the process of modernisation, a key trend identified by Moores is how states are retooling to fight insurgency conflicts in the same way the US military has in Afghanistan & Iraq. “Look at UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt & Algeria. They were all countries that bought a lot of conventional arms in the past that are no use in a sectarian war or an insurgency.

“If you look at what was bought at the recent Idex arms fair in Abu Dhabi, it was drones, high-end surveillance satellites, strategic transport aircraft for projecting power. One of the reasons Egypt went with its recent purchase of Rafale jets [from France] is because it wanted planes that could deliver precision-guided standoff weapons.”

And as Tobias Borck of the Royal United Services Institute points out, states in the Middle East are now more prepared to use the weapons they are buying. “[The] Saudi-led military operations in Yemen [are] the latest manifestation of Arab interventionism, a trend that has been gaining momentum in the Middle East since the uprisings of the Arab spring,” he says. “Middle Eastern countries appear to be increasingly willing to use their armed forces to protect & pursue their interests in crisis zones across the region.”

Referring to the inconsistent approach by key security council members towards arms control in the region, he adds: “There are a lot of different streams feeding into this arms race. On Syria’s chemical weapons & the Iranian nuclear programme, the 2 issues were ring fenced as pure arms control questions. When it comes to how we perceive our arms sales – whether they are British or US or whatever – it tends to be seen as a domestic economic issue – protecting our factories.

“That neglects the regional political dimensions, with arms sales taking place with a lack of regard for that context & without long-term strategic awareness.”

Borck says that the scale of the arms being supplied to countries such as Saudi Arabia & the UAE by the west may also be acting as an incentive for Russia to get back into the Middle East – not least via arms sales to its old clients such as Iran – & may have been a motivating factor in the Kremlin’s decision to lift the ban on the delivery of the S-300 missile system.

Putin, defending the decision to supply the missiles during a call-in television show last week, cited Russia’s prerogative to pursue its own foreign policy initiatives & suggested that the missiles could represent “a deterrent factor in connection with the situation in Yemen”.

Omar Ashour, an expert on Middle East security issues at Exeter University, has sounded a further note of caution, this time over the intentions of the new Saudi-led Arab coalition, warning that its interventions are unlikely to contribute to stability. “The rise of Arab military coalitions raises serious concerns,” he wrote in a recent piece for Project Syndicate. “Such interventions were usually aimed at empowering a proxy political force over its military & political rivals, instead of averting humanitarian disaster or institutionalising a non-violent conflict-resolution mechanism following a war.”

Speaking to the Guardian last week, he added: “On top of that, the increases in arms sales are bound to be extremely destabilising. At the moment most of the interventions have been against softer targets – Saudi Arabia targeting guerrillas in Yemen; Egypt against Bedouin in Sinai; or strikes against ragtag armies in Libya. But if the ‘soft’ keeps being hit hard, they won’t remain soft. They will find their own patrons & proxies & hit back & it will lead to a vicious cycle.”

Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher at Sipri, which maintains a database tracking arms contracts, raises another concern. “Something that doesn’t get mentioned is the complete lack of interest in arms control among the countries in the region. It is not in the minds of leaders & decision-makers, except for the need to arm to defeat any potential opponent.

“There is already instability in the region on several levels. You have instability in Yemen, Syria & Iraq. There is instability between Iran & the Gulf states. What is important now is how the massive expansion of the armed forces of Saudi Arabia, UAE & Qatar will be seen as posing a clear threat to Iran.”

Borck adds a final warning: “If you are going for an ever bigger hammer, then the more desperate you are to make every problem a nail.”

'Grueling & hazardous': HRW exposes Palestinian child abuse in Israeli settler farms

So, apparently, the Holocaust allows Israelis to employ Palestinian children as low-wage workers, & the world stays silent on it, because Palestinians need to suffer now for the suffering of the Israelis in the Holocaust.

Now, some may say, why am I bringing up the Holocaust in an article about child labour in Israel. The reason is that you say anything, which seems to be against Israel, & the answer is always, from Israelis & Zionist supporters, is that Jews have suffered a lot from the Exodus to Holocaust. Although, that is nothing to do with the topic at hand, the answer is always the same.

So, apparently, everyone else, regardless of whether they ever did anything to any Jew or Israeli, need to suffer now.

It's funny how Israelis always find a nice loophole. Child labour is illegal in Israel BUT if child labourers are employed through a middleman contractor, then it's all legal.
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http://rt.com/news/249281-child-abuse-israeli-farms/

Human Rights Watch has heavily criticized the abuse of Palestinian children working on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying that children are working in hazardous conditions & in violation of Israeli & international law.
 
The report, called “Ripe for Abuse,” said that children as young as 10 are working on the settlement farms in the Jordan Valley, sometimes in conditions that are harmful to their health.
 
HRW also said that much of the produce cultivated & harvested by child labor is exported to Europe & the US.
 
"Israel’s settlements are profiting from rights abuses against Palestinian children. Children from communities impoverished by Israel’s discrimination & settlement policies are dropping out of school & taking on dangerous work because they feel they have no alternatives, while Israel turns a blind eye," HRW's Middle East director, Sarah Leah Whitson, said in a statement.
 
The head of the settlement community in the Jordan Valley dismissed the HRW report as “lies.”

"They've made up lies. The entire goal of this organization is to sully Israel's image. If they'd show me a farmer employing a child, I'd report it to police immediately," David Elhayani, a former farmer, told AFP.
 
He insisted he would lose his exporting license if he were caught employing child labor, although he did acknowledge that the Palestinian contractors he works with use middlemen who could employ children without a farmer knowing about it.
 
HRW interviewed 38 children & 12 adults to research their report in the Palestinian communities of the Jordan Valley who were employed by settlement farms in the area. HRW acknowledges that children are the minority of workers employed on settlement farms, but says that they do so because of a lack of any real alternatives.
 
Israel’s policies throughout the occupied West Bank restrict Palestinian access to land, water & fertilizer as well as their ability to transport & sell their goods.

“Ask [the children] if they have any bread in the house,” a Palestinian middleman who supplied Palestinian workers to settlement farms told an Israeli human rights worker.
 
The researchers found that most of the children working on settlements had dropped out of school & the rest were working part time while still attending school.

“It’s very obvious which kids go to work in the settlements, because they are exhausted in class,” a school administrator told HRW.
 
On average, children said they began working at the settlements when they were 13 or 14, but HRW found one boy who said he started working when he was 10. Work starts at 5:30 a.m. or 6 a.m. & lasts for 7 to 8 hours, which increases to 12 hours during harvest time, often for 6 or 7 days a week.

“The work that children perform can be both grueling & hazardous,” the report says. Some children complained of skin rashes, dizziness & vomiting after spraying crops with pesticides without adequate protection while others were injured by sharp blades & machinery used to cut crops.
 
Temperatures can exceed 50 degrees Celsius in summer & so many of the children as well as the adults are susceptible to heat stroke.
 
The children working in settlements are paid very low wages, far less than the Israeli minimum wage, which is $6.20 an hour. Most of the children interviewed by HRW earned $16 to $19 a day.
 
Israeli & Palestinian law makes it illegal to work if you’re under 15. Under military orders issued by Israel in the West Bank, Israel’s domestic minimum wage law is applicable to Palestinian workers in settlements.
 
But the practice of using middlemen to hire workers means there’s mostly no contract linking an employee child or otherwise to their employer.
 
Workers are paid “in cash, [get] no pay slips, & there are no [work] permits, so there is no paper trail to demand severance pay or anything else,” a Palestinian middleman told HRW.
 
Children working in Israeli settlements not only violate Israeli & Palestinian law but also international law. Both Israel & Palestine are party to the Convention of the Rights of the Child, which protects children from being economically exploited & from performing work which is hazardous or interferes with their schooling.
 
HRW also called on the US & Europe to stop importing produce from the settlements, much of which is given preferential tariffs.
 
"The EU has moved to exclude Israeli settlement products from the preferential tariff treatment it provides to Israeli goods... but [member states] have not instructed businesses to end trade with settlement-based entities. The US in practice continues to grant preferential treatment to Israeli settlement products under the US-Israel Free Trade Agreement," HRW said.

"Open Arms" by Graeme MacKay

"Open Arms" - Graeme MacKay, Hamilton Spectator, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Hundreds forced to work as slaves to catch seafood for global supply

World economy may improve but the conditions of the poor keep declining. People say, this world is a modern world. How is it exactly a modern world, when human trafficking is on the rise, where humans are being considered nothing more than a disposable tissue paper ... use them & throw them.

And then why do we wonder at the dismal state of this world?
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/men-forced-to-work-as-slaves-to-catch-seafood-for-global-supply/article23609283/ 

The Burmese slaves sat on the floor & stared through the rusty bars of their locked cage, hidden on a tiny tropical island thousands of miles from home.
 
Just a few yards away, other workers loaded cargo ships with slave-caught seafood that clouds the supply networks of major supermarkets, restaurants & even pet stores in the US.
 
But the 8 imprisoned men were considered flight risks — labourers who might dare run away. They lived on a few bites of rice & curry a day in a space barely big enough to lie down, stuck until the next trawler forces them back to sea.

“All I did was tell my captain I couldn’t take it anymore, that I wanted to go home,” said Kyaw Naing, his dark eyes pleading into an Associated Press video camera sneaked in by a sympathetic worker. “The next time we docked,” he said nervously out of earshot of a nearby guard, “I was locked up.”

Here, in the Indonesian island village of Benjina & the surrounding waters, hundreds of trapped men represent one of the most desperate links criss-crossing between companies & countries in the seafood industry. This intricate web of connections separates the fish we eat from the men who catch it, & obscures a brutal truth: Your seafood may come from slaves.
 
The men the AP interviewed on Benjina were mostly from Myanmar, also known as Burma, one of the poorest countries in the world. They were brought to Indonesia through Thailand & forced to fish. Their catch was then shipped back to Thailand, where it entered the global stream of commerce.
 
Tainted fish can wind up in the supply chains of some of America’s major grocery stores, such as Kroger, Albertsons & Safeway; the nation’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart; & the biggest food distributor, Sysco. It can find its way into the supply chains of some of the most popular brands of canned pet food, including Fancy Feast, Meow Mix & Iams. It can turn up as calamari at fine dining restaurants, as imitation crab in a California sushi roll or as packages of frozen snapper relabeled with store brands that land on our dinner tables.
 
In a year-long investigation, the AP talked to more than 40 current & former slaves in Benjina. The AP documented the journey of a single large shipment of slave-caught seafood from the Indonesian village, tracking it by satellite to a gritty Thai harbour. Upon its arrival, AP journalists followed trucks that loaded & drove the seafood over 4 nights to dozens of factories, cold storage plants & the country’s biggest fish market.
 
The tainted seafood mixes in with other fish at a number of sites in Thailand, including processing plants. US Customs records show that several of those Thai factories ship to America. They also sell to Europe & Asia, but the AP traced shipments to the US, where trade records are public.
 
By this time, it is nearly impossible to tell where a specific fish caught by a slave ends up. However, entire supply chains are muddied, & money is trickling down the line to companies that benefit from slave labour.
 
The major corporations contacted would not speak on the record but issued statements that strongly condemned labour abuses. All said they were taking steps to prevent forced labour, such as working with human rights groups to hold subcontractors accountable.
 
Several independent seafood distributors who did comment described the costly & exhaustive steps taken to ensure their supplies are clean. They said the discovery of slaves underscores how hard it is to monitor what goes on halfway around the world.
 
Santa Monica Seafood, a large independent importer that sells to restaurants, markets & direct from its store, has been a leader in improving international fisheries, & sends buyers around the world to inspect vendors.

“The supply chain is quite cloudy, especially when it comes from offshore,” said Logan Kock, vice-president for responsible sourcing, who acknowledged that the industry recognizes and is working to address the problem. “Is it possible a little of this stuff is leaking through? Yeah, it is possible. We are all aware of it.”

The slaves interviewed by the AP had no idea where the fish they caught was headed. They knew only that it was so valuable, they were not allowed to eat it.
 
They said the captains on their fishing boats forced them to drink unclean water & work 20- to 22-hour shifts with no days off. Almost all said they were kicked, whipped with toxic stingray tails or otherwise beaten if they complained or tried to rest. They were paid little or nothing, as they hauled in heavy nets with squid, shrimp, snapper, grouper & other fish.
 
Some shouted for help over the deck of their trawler in the port to reporters, as bright fluorescent lights silhouetted their faces in the darkness.

“I want to go home. We all do,” one man called out in Burmese, a cry repeated by others. The AP is not using the names of some men for their safety. “Our parents haven’t heard from us for a long time. I’m sure they think we are dead.”

Another glanced fearfully over his shoulder toward the captain’s quarters, and then yelled: “It’s torture. When we get beaten, we can’t do anything back. ... I think our lives are in the hands of the Lord of Death.”

In the worst cases, numerous men reported maimings or even deaths on their boats.

“If Americans & Europeans are eating this fish, they should remember us,” said Hlaing Min, 30, a runaway slave from Benjina. “There must be a mountain of bones under the sea. ... The bones of the people could be an island, it’s that many.”
 
———————
For Burmese slaves, Benjina is the end of the world.
 
Roughly 3,500 people live in the town that straddles two small islands separated by a five-minute boat ride. Part of the Maluku chain, formerly known as the Spice Islands, the area is about 400 miles north of Australia, & hosts small kangaroos & rare birds of paradise with dazzling bright feathers.
 
The small harbour is occupied by Pusaka Benjina Resources, whose five-story office compound stands out & includes the cage with the slaves. The company is the only fishing operation on Benjina officially registered in Indonesia, & is listed as the owner of more than 90 trawlers. However, the captains are Thai, & the Indonesian government is reviewing to see if the boats are really Thai-owned. Pusaka Benjina did not respond to phone calls & a letter, & did not speak to a reporter who waited for 2 hours in the company’s Jakarta office.
 
On the dock in Benjina, former slaves unload boats for food & pocket money. Many are men who were abandoned by their captains — sometimes 5, 10 or even 20 years ago — & remain stranded.
 
In the deeply forested island interiors, new runaways forage for food & collect rainwater, living in constant fear of being found by hired slave catchers.
 
And just off a beach covered in sharp coral, a graveyard swallowed by the jungle entombs dozens of fishermen. They are buried under fake Thai names given to them when they were tricked or sold onto their ships, forever covering up evidence of their captors’ abuse, their friends say.

“I always thought if there was an entrance there had to be an exit,” said Tun Lin Maung, a slave abandoned on Benjina, as other men nodded or looked at the ground. “Now I know that’s not true.”

The Arafura Sea provides some of the world’s richest & most diverse fishing grounds, teeming with mackerel, tuna, squid & many other species.
 
Although it is Indonesian territory, it draws many illegal fishing fleets, including from Thailand. The trade that results affects the US & other countries.
 
The US counts Thailand as one of its top seafood suppliers, & buys about 20% of the country’s $7 billion annual exports in the industry. Last year, the State Department blacklisted Thailand for failing to meet minimum standards in fighting human trafficking, placing the country in the ranks of North Korea, Syria & Iran. However, there were no additional sanctions.
 
Thailand’s seafood industry is largely run off the backs of migrant labourers, said Kendra Krieder, a State Department analyst who focuses on supply chains. The treatment of some of these workers falls under the US government’s definition of slavery, which includes forcing people to keep working even if they once signed up for the jobs, or trafficking them into situations where they are exploited.

“In the most extreme cases, you’re talking about someone kidnapped or tricked into working on a boat, physically beaten, chained,” said Krieder. “These situations would be called modern slavery by any measure.”

The Thai government says it is cleaning up the problem. On the bustling floor of North America’s largest seafood show in Boston earlier this month, an official for the Department of Fisheries laid out a plan to address labour abuse, including new laws that mandate wages, sick leave & shifts of no more than 14 hours. However, Kamonpan Awaiwanont stopped short when presented details about the men in Benjina.

“This is still happening now?” he asked. He paused. “We are trying to solve it. This is ongoing.”

The Thai government also promises a new national registry of illegal migrant workers, including more than 100,000 flooding the seafood industry. However, policing has now become even harder because decades of illegal fishing have depleted stocks close to home, pushing the boats farther and deeper into foreign waters.
 
The Indonesian government has called a temporary ban on most fishing, aiming to clear out foreign poachers who take billions of dollars of seafood from the country’s waters. As a result, more than 50 boats are now docked in Benjina, leaving up to 1,000 more slaves stranded onshore & waiting to see what will happen next.
 
Indonesian officials are trying to enforce laws that ban cargo ships from picking up fish from boats at sea. This practice forces men to stay on the water for months or sometimes years at a time, essentially creating floating prisons.
 
Susi Pudjiastuti, the new Fisheries Minister, said she has heard of different fishing companies putting men in cells. She added that she believes the trawlers on Benjina may really have Thai owners, despite the Indonesian paperwork, reflecting a common practice of faking or duplicating licenses.
 
She said she is deeply disturbed about the abuse on Benjina & other islands.

“I’m very sad. I lose my eating appetite. I lose my sleep,” she said. “They are building up an empire on slavery, on stealing, on fish(ing) out, on massive environmental destruction for a plate of seafood.”
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The story of slavery in the Thai seafood industry started decades ago with the same push-and-pull that shapes economic immigration worldwide — the hope of escaping grinding poverty to find a better life somewhere else.
 
In recent years, as the export business has expanded, it has become more difficult to convince young Burmese or Cambodian migrants & impoverished Thais — all of whom were found on Benjina — to accept the dangerous jobs. Agents have become more desperate & ruthless, recruiting children & the disabled, lying about wages & even drugging & kidnapping migrants, according to a former broker who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution.
 
The broker said agents then sell the slaves, usually to Thai captains of fishing boats or the companies that own them. Each slave typically costs around $1,000, according to Patima Tungpuchayakul, manager of the Thai-based non-profit Labor Rights Promotion Network Foundation. The men are later told they have to work off the “debt” with wages that don’t come for months or years, or at all.

“The employers are probably more worried about the fish than the workers’ lives,” she said. “They get a lot of money from this type of business.”

Illegal Thai boats are falsely registered to fish in Indonesia through graft, sometimes with the help of government authorities. Praporn Ekouru, a Thai former member of Parliament, admitted to the AP that he had bribed Indonesian officials to go into their waters, & complained that the Indonesian government’s crackdown is hurting business.

“In the past, we sent Thai boats to fish in Indonesian waters by changing their flags,” said Praporn, who is also chairman of the Songkhla Fisheries Association in southern Thailand. “We had to pay bribes of millions of baht per year, or about 200,000 baht ($6,100) per month. ... The officials are not receiving money anymore because this order came from the government.”

Illegal workers are given false documents, because Thai boats cannot hire undocumented crew. One of the slaves in Benjina, Maung Soe, said he was given a fake seafarer book belonging to a Thai national, accepted in Indonesia as an informal travel permit. He rushed back to his boat to dig up a crinkled copy.

“That’s not my name, not my signature,” he said angrily, pointing at the worn piece of paper. “The only thing on here that is real is my photograph.”

Soe said he had agreed to work on a fishing boat only if it stayed in Thai waters, because he had heard Indonesia was a place from which workers never came back.

“They tricked me,” he said. “They lied to me. ... They created fake papers & put me on the boat, & now here I am in Indonesia.”

The slaves said the level of abuse on the fishing boats depends on individual captains & assistants. Aung Naing Win, who left a wife & 2 children behind in Myanmar 2 years ago, said some fishermen were so depressed that they simply threw themselves into the water. Win, 40, said his most painful task was working without proper clothing in the ship’s giant freezer, where temperatures drop to 39 degrees below zero.

“It was so cold, our hands were burning,” he said. “No one really cared if anyone died.”
————————

The shipment the AP tracked from the port of Benjina carried fish from smaller trawlers; AP journalists talked to slaves on more than a dozen of them.
 
A crane hoisted the seafood onto a refrigerated cargo ship called the Silver Sea Line, with an immense hold as big as 50 semi-trucks. At this point, by UN & US standards, every fish in that hold is considered associated with slavery.
 
The ship belongs to the Silver Sea Reefer Co., which is registered in Thailand & has at least nine refrigerated cargo boats. The company said it is not involved with the fishermen.
“We only carry the shipment & we are hired in general by clients,” said owner Panya Luangsomboon. “We’re separated from the fishing boats.”

The AP followed the Silver Sea Line by satellite over 15 days to Samut Sakhon. When it arrived, workers on the dock packed the seafood over 4 nights onto more than 150 trucks, which then delivered their loads around the city.
 
One truck bore the name & bird logo of Kingfisher Holdings Ltd., which supplies frozen & canned seafood around the world. Another truck went to Mahachai Marine Foods Co., a cold storage business that also supplies to Kingfisher & other exporters, according to Kawin Ngernanek, whose family runs it.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes,” said Kawin, who also serves as spokesman for the Thai Overseas Fisheries Association. “Kingfisher buys several types of products.”

When asked about abusive labour practices, Kingfisher did not answer repeated requests for comment. Mahachai manager Narongdet Prasertsri responded, “I have no idea about it at all.”

Every month, Kingfisher and its subsidiary KF Foods Ltd. sends about 100 metric tons of seafood from Thailand to America, according to US Customs Bills of Lading. These shipments have gone to Santa Monica Seafood, Stavis Seafoods — located on Boston’s historic Fish Pier — & other distributors.
 
Richard Stavis, whose grandfather started the dealership in 1929, shook his head when told about the slaves whose catch may end up at businesses he buys from. He said his company visits processors & fisheries, requires notarized certification of legal practices & uses third-party audits.

“The truth is, these are the kind of things that keep you up at night,” he said. “That’s the sort of thing I want to stop. ... There are companies like ours that care & are working as hard as they can.”

Wholesalers like Stavis sell packages of fish, branded & unbranded, that can end up on supermarket shelves with a private label or house brand. Stavis’ customers also include Sysco, the largest food distributor in the US; there is no clear way to know which particular fish was sold to them.
 
Sysco declined an interview, but the company’s code of conduct says it “will not knowingly work with any supplier that uses forced, bonded, indentured or slave labour.”

Gavin Gibbons, a spokesman for National Fisheries Institute, which represents about 75% of the US seafood industry, said the reports of abuse were “disturbing” & “disheartening.” ”But these type of things flourish in the shadows,“ he said.
 
A similar pattern repeats itself with other shipments & other companies, as the supply chain splinters off in many directions in Samut Sakhon. It is in this Thai port that slave-caught seafood starts to lose its history.
 
The AP followed another truck to Niwat Co., which sells to Thai Union Manufacturing Co., according to part owner Prasert Luangsomboon. Weeks later, when confronted about forced labour in their supply chain, Niwat referred several requests for comment to Luangsomboon, who could not be reached for further comment.
 
Thai Union Manufacturing is a subsidiary of Thai Union Frozen Products PCL., the country’s largest seafood corporation, with $3.5 billion in annual sales. This parent company, known simply as Thai Union, owns Chicken of the Sea & is buying Bumble Bee, although the AP did not observe any tuna fisheries. In September, it became the country’s first business to be certified by Dow Jones for sustainable practices, after meeting environmental & social reviews.
 
Thai Union said it condemns human rights violations, but multiple stakeholders must be part of the solution. “We all have to admit that it is difficult to ensure the Thai seafood industry’s supply chain is 100% clean,” CEO Thiraphong Chansiri said in an emailed statement.
 
Thai Union ships thousands of cans of cat food to the US, including household brands like Fancy Feast, Meow Mix & Iams. These end up on shelves of major grocery chains, such as Kroger, Safeway & Albertsons, as well as pet stores; again, however, it’s impossible to tell if a particular can of cat food might have slave-caught fish.
 
Thai Union says its direct clients include Wal-Mart, which declined an interview but said in an email statement: “We care about the men & women in our supply chain, & we are concerned about the ethical recruitment of workers.”

Wal-Mart described its work with several non-profits to end forced labour in Thailand, including Project Issara, & referred the AP to Lisa Rende Taylor, its director. She noted that slave-caught seafood can slip into supply chains undetected at several points, such as when it is traded between boats or mingles with clean fish at processing plants. She also confirmed that seafood sold at the Talay Thai market — to where the AP followed several trucks — can enter international supply chains.

“Transactions throughout Thai seafood supply chains are often not well-documented, making it difficult to estimate exactly how much seafood available on supermarket shelves around the world is tainted by human trafficking & forced labour,” she said.
 
Poj Aramwattananont, president of an industry group that represents Thai Union, Kingfisher & others, said Thais are not “jungle people” & know that human trafficking is wrong. However, he acknowledged that Thai companies cannot always track down the origins of their fish.

“We don’t know where the fish come from when we buy from Indonesia,” said Poj of the Thai Frozen Foods Association. “We have no record. We don’t know if that fish is good or bad.”
——————

The seafood the slaves on Benjina catch may travel around the world, but their own lives often end right here, in this island village.
 
A crude cemetery holds more than graves strangled by tall grasses & jungle vines, where small wooden markers are neatly labelled, some with the falsified names of slaves & boats. Only their friends remember where they were laid to rest.
 
In the past, former slave Hla Phyo said, supervisors on ships simply tossed bodies into the sea to be devoured by sharks. But after authorities & companies started demanding that every man be accounted for on the roster upon return, captains began stowing corpses alongside the fish in ship freezers until they arrived back in Benjina, the slaves said.
 
Lifting his knees as he stepped over the thick brush, Phyo searched for 2 grave markers overrun by weeds — friends he helped bury.
 
It’s been 5 years since he himself escaped the sea & struggled to survive on the island. Every night, his mind drifts back to his mother in Myanmar. He knows she must be getting old now, & he desperately wants to return to her. Standing among so many anonymous tombs stacked on top of each other, hopelessness overwhelms him.

“I’m starting to feel like I will be in Indonesia forever,” he said, wiping a tear away. “I remember thinking when I was digging, the only thing that awaits us here is death.”

India negotiating free trade zone with Russia-led Customs Union

India is to start negotiating a free trade agreement with the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus & Kazakhstan within the next six months, Indian Deputy Minister of Commerce & Industry Rajeev Kher has said.
 
As most of the developed world in the West is suffering an economic downturn, the developing world has been stepping up efforts to bring their economies closer.
 
Most recently, China said it could establish a free trade zone with a broader Russia-led economic bloc that also includes Armenia & is expected to include Kyrgyzstan soon.

The Eurasian customs union is a regional bloc that includes Russia, Belarus & Kazakhstan aimed at creating a single economic space with common tariffs. The group has a population of 168 million people & a GDP of more than $2 trillion.

 

The BRICS countries which include Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa will also have established by the end of the year the $100 billion New Development Bank, as a rival to the IMF & the World Bank.

 

http://rt.com/business/235731-india-russia-customs-union/

Canads's secret arms deal with Saudi Arabia

Just in case, if you were thinking after reading (assuming you read & not closed your eyes & jammed fingers in your ears) that article about how an activist crashed a glitzy arms industry dinner, that it's all other countries & got nothing to do with Canada, & Canada is the beacon of peace. Well, here's an article on arms deal between Canada & Saudi Arabia, & ironically, government isn't revealing much info on the deal ... wow, what a great democracy ... people cannot know what the gov't is doing ... the same people who voted for the govt.

My tax $$$ are going to support human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia. I don't think I voted for that in last election (I voted NDP). Isn't this a great feeling that Canadians are supporting human rights abuses in foreign countries? Then, when people in those countries don't feel that great about us, we are like, "they don't like our way of life." Frankly, why would or should they? We are complicit in them being abused through our tax $$$.

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadas-arms-deal-with-saudi-arabia-shrouded-in-secrecy/article22547765/