The United States seized a record-high $50 million this year in imported goods that were produced by companies who used forced labor, and it expects to do more blocking under the incoming Biden administration.
“Absolutely, this type of enforcement action will continue,” Ana Hinojosa, executive director of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Directorate, told reporters Wednesday. “Forced labor in the U.S. supply chain is a very bipartisan issue. … For this upcoming year, I would expect that we would continue, at least at the same pace.”
Federal law prohibits the importation of goods mined, manufactured, or produced, in part or fully, by convict labor, forced child labor, and indentured labor. During fiscal year 2020, which ran from Oct. 1, 2019, through Sept. 30, CBP issued 13 orders directing its officers to detain and not allow into the U.S. foreign goods that it had concluded through international investigations were made by foreign companies who relied on children, abused workers, and people in internment camps.
The 13 orders issued over the past year were more than the previous four years combined, which Hinojosa said was “unprecedented” and the result of the agency growing its trade team. In 2020, CBP seized 300 cargo shipments that contained more than $50 million in goods made from forced labor.
Hinojosa announced Wednesday a new ban on palm oil made by Malaysian company Sime Darby Plantation Berhad and its affiliates. The U.S. imported approximately $410 million in crude palm oil from Malaysia alone this past year, roughly 30% of crude palm oil imports globally. Palm oil is estimated to be used in nearly half of items on grocery store shelves, an indication the new ban could affect manufacturers of food and personal care items that rely on it.
“The goal of these [palm oil] companies is to lower their production costs and sell their goods below the market value, which of course introduces unfair competition into the global supply chain,” Hinojosa said. “That unfair competition hurts legitimate businesses that do respect human rights and fair labor standards. In addition, forced labor is inherently unfair to consumers who may unknowingly purchase unethically made goods.”
This latest order to detain palm oil products is the second filed against a Malaysian company. The Sime Darby Plantation mistreated workers, including through physical and sexual violence, withholding of wages, debt bondage, abuse of vulnerability, intimidation and threats, and the restriction of movement. Migrants are often the victims of forced labor, CBP said.
“Today’s withhold release order sends an unambiguous message to the trade community that based on all of our enforcement actions,” Hinojosa said. “We’re expecting the trade community to know your supply chain.”
The Department of Homeland Security agency has focused most of its efforts to block imports made from forced trade over the past year on Chinese companies based out of the Xinjiang region. The United Nations estimates 1 million Uighur Muslims have been detained in labor camps there. China is the world’s largest exporter of cotton, most of which comes from Xinjiang. China has described the camps as vocational training centers.
“Surveying emerging threats of the last year, one menacing actor continues to evolve — China,” acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said in September.
In May, the U.S. banned imports made by the Hetian Haolin Hair Accessories Co. from Xinjiang. Then, in June, CBP officers at the Port of New York/Newark intercepted a shipment from Xinjiang that contained 13 tons of human hair extensions and products that it suspected were made from people in forced child labor and imprisonment. The government imposed a ban on all products from Lop County Meixin Hair Product Co.
All import bans are in effect until a company can prove it is no longer using forced labor.
