US acknowledges Thai junta's labor solutions

BANGKOK, July 29 (TNA) - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that the United States has acknowledged labor solutions of the Thai army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and may remove four Thai product items from its child and forced labor watch list. Songsak Saicheua, Director-General of the ministry's Department of American and South Pacific Affairs, told journalists on Tuesday that he and representatives of eight Thai food associations visited the United States from July 19-25, 2014 to meet local authorities, wholesalers and trade union members. Songsak said that his delegation presented solutions to migrant labor and human trafficking in Thailand, emphasizing that the NCPO is seriously tackling the problems by bringing illegal migrant workers to the formal labor system through legal registrations at one-stop service centers to protect them from abuse and human trafficking. According to the senior official, he also presented the establishment of 12 special economic zones along the Thai border, solutions to all labor in local fishery and marine industries and a marine labor bill, which has already been approved by the Thai junta and will systematically protect fishery workers to have 30 vacation days yearly. Besides, Thailand has a law to integrate labor protection and make relevant operations serious and fair. The senior official revealed that the recent explanation made the US side better understand the Thai junta's systematic labor solutions and realize there are measures and sincerity, making US business operators have confidence in the work of the Thai junta and insist on keeping on importing Thai products. The senior official noted that the United States is also expected to remove four Thai product items, namely sugarcane, shrimp, fish and garment, from its child and forced labor watch list and he will, thus, send additional information to Washington next month, prior to its announced decision in September. (TNA)