Brussels, 05/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament (EP) foreign affairs committee agreed unanimously on Tuesday 4 October to recommend that a textile trade agreement between the EU and Uzbekistan be frozen. They question the extension of the provisions of the EU-Uzbekistan partnership and cooperation agreement to the bilateral textile trade when forced child labour in the cotton fields is widespread in the country. More than a million children from the age of seven are taken to work in the cotton plantations for two to three months every autumn. These fields are treated with products that are harmful to health and the children are forced to live in unsanitary conditions. “We cannot just sign trade agreements at any cost. Our trade policy and the values espoused by the EU must be coherent”, stated rapporteur Nicole Kiil-Nielsen (Greens/EFA, France). (CG/transl.rt)