American Child Trade Case Study

At this moment and time American trade is a huge and very complex issue. Children in third world countries are forced to work in unsafe factories for 12 hours at a time just to meet sales demand. These children are suffering just to make enough money to barely survive. As of the time that the Loc Tran case was written, American trade policy revolved around the use of child labor. In current times this has not changed at all. American trade utilizes third world child labor to meet the high demands for products while keeping the production/labor costs as minimal as possible. Loc Tran is one of the many children who are forced in to this industry at such a young age. In these countries where poverty is a national crisis, everyone, including

However, this is the only way these children and their families are able to survive. If they don’t work, then they could die of hunger. American trade policy should make it so children under 16 aren’t forced to be in a forced to be in a factory working 12-hour days for such minimal pay. The children that are working should be paid a livable wage that could help pull them and their families out of extreme poverty. They should also be provided with semi-humane work conditions. Some of these conditions should be: ventilated buildings, safety gear, and outdoor bathroom facilities. They should also be given 8-hour days instead of 12-hour days. However, this would be a large step to take to meet even a few of these conditions. To change American trade policy to improve the conditions of these child workers would take years; However, it could be done. A good starting point would be to first improve the facilities that the children are working in. If the facilities were improved, then the torture of sitting in filth and foul odors for such long hours would be gone. This is a giant step, but it is a great foothold of a starting

Companies would also be in a tight position because they would be losing a great portion of their workers.

On a bill such as this one I would vote it down immediately for many reasons. For one, child labor is not something that you can fix immediately with just one bill. Fixing this issue will take time. I stick with the plan for improvement that I proposed earlier. This issue is very complex and rooted deeply into the American trade industry. To fix the issue you need to go about it in small steps. If this bill were to be denied at the hands of my vote the only downside that it would cause is the continuation of the child labor, but, like I have stated, it needs to be fixed with other means. The issue of child labor is truly a complex issue. One could be an avid supporter for the ending of child labor, but do they really know how far the roots go? All in all, child labor is not the best thing to utilize, but it provides a means for the impoverished families in third world countries to stay