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Article: Brazil's bid for economic leadership could be derailed by child labor conflict.(Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- September 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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FRANCA, Brazil _ Brazil's ``capital of child labor'' is a small, sunny town where several hundred kids under age 14 work in stuffy rooms, glueing and sewing shoe parts for export to the United States.
So it has been for several years. Yet in the last few months, Franca's working children have become the focus of a broadening international conflict.
Just as Brazil is seeking to establish itself as a leader of Latin economies, the town's fame has stained the nation's image, invited the threat of U.S. trade sanctions and worried President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
It has also dramatized one of the most complex controversies of the new, free-trade era.
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