By IANS
Noida : Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath Thursday said he has raised with EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson the issue of European NGOs’ accusation of India breaching labour laws and human rights.
“The government is enquiring into it and we want to ensure this is looked at in a correct perspective, and I have written to Peter Mandelson that the (Indian) government views this very seriously,” Kamal Nath told reporters on the sidelines of an event here.
“It was the case of a Dutch NGO, which (made) absolutely false (charges). So we want to make sure that these are not non-tariff barriers and these non-tariff barriers by EU will be responded to with measures of similar kind,” he added.
Last month during the visits of trade ministers of Finland and Netherlands also the minister had raised the issue.
It all started in September when a Dutch NGO in an article on the Indian textile industry wrote that it employs over about 400,000 children working for 12 hours for less than Rs.30 a day.