USA – Forced labour and modern slavery

Section III: Additional National Action Plan Commitments

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Table 2: Procurement Commitments

Customs Border Protection will “draft guidance to direct the proactive consideration on a case-by-case basis, suspension and debarment whenever CBP issues a penalty under the customs laws for repeated violations of 19 U.S.C. § 1307 or other laws CBP enforces to combat forced labor.” (p.18)

The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council “will consider regulatory changes to reduce or eliminate the ability of federal contractors to contract with subcontractors who have been debarred, suspended, or proposed for debarment. […], regulatory changes may not only help ensure entities subject to WROs take corrective action but will also help prevent items made with forced labor from being procured with federal dollars.” (p.19)

The Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) will “make it easier for contractors to identify “high-risk” sectors for federal contracts by standardizing naming conventions between their lists and those in the FAR and improving access for contractors to a designated ILAB webpage with information about USG resources, including ILAB’s child labor and forced labor reports.” (p.19)

ILAB will also “map the “List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor” to Product Service Codes (PSC) and country information to increase use by the acquisition workforce. DOL maintains the “List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor” to raise public awareness about forced labor and child labor around the world and to promote efforts to combat them; it is not intended to be punitive, but rather to serve as a catalyst for more strategic and focused coordination and collaboration among those working to address these problems. Mapping the named products to PSC will facilitate analysis of procurement data by country of origin and additional protections, such as those outlined in M-20-01, Anti-Trafficking Risk Management Best Practices & Mitigation Considerations, and could be imposed in awards with heightened risk of forced labor issues.” (p.19)

The Department of Health and Human Services will “work with industry partners, civil society, unions, individuals with lived experience, and other subject matter experts to develop and make available a suite of sector-specific tools, including online training, recommendations, model policies, and a resource portal, to prevent forced labor, human trafficking and related practices in the supply chains (including purchased services) of U.S. health systems and public health institutions, pursuant to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA)…” (p.20)

Table 3: Access to Remedy Commitments

“ILAB will fund a project to improve the implementation of worker-driven social compliance systems that promote fundamental labor rights and acceptable conditions of work, including the elimination of forced labor, in supply chains. Piloted in the Indonesian palm oil sector, this project will create or refine a model for social compliance systems that can be replicated in other countries and sectors to help ensure that workers have a say in securing for themselves fair working conditions. The duration of this project will be three years.” (p.23)

Workers’ Rights

“Promoting internationally recognized labor rights, including freedom of association and the right to not be subjected to forced labor, is key to achieving inclusive growth, enhancing stability, and leveling the playing field for U.S. workers and businesses. The USG regularly leverages its diplomatic engagement, trade policy, programming, and reporting to foster respect for internationally recognized labor rights and help develop commitments by key stakeholders to respect these rights. This includes a steadfast commitment to promoting RBC both domestically and internationally. Moreover, the establishment of the Global Labor Strategy significantly bolsters our efforts in this regard. Through this initiative, the USG will better coordinate its resources and initiatives to address emerging labor rights issues comprehensively. The following commitments seek to strengthen USG capacity to engage on emerging labor rights issues and strengthen implementation of measures that combat the use of forced labor.” (p.30)

Table 5: Workers’ Rights Commitments

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) will “address forced labor in traded goods and services by establishing a Forced Labor Trade Strategy to identify priorities and establish an action plan for utilizing existing and potential new trade tools. USTR will conduct an interagency review across the USG through the Trade Policy Staff Committee’s Subcommittee on Trade, Forced Labor, and Child Labor to examine existing trade policies and tools used to combat forced labor, including forced child labor, in order to identify areas that may need to be strengthened and gaps that may need to be filled. USTR will use this analysis to establish objectives, priorities, new tools, and key action items to advance development of the strategy. The process will maximize input from stakeholders, including victims; labor and human rights organizations; civil society; and the private sector.” (p.30)

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will “convene biannual stakeholder engagements on the implementation of the UFLPA Strategy to enhance its ability to be responsive to external stakeholder input. These meetings will include stakeholders from the private sector and civil society and will provide key Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force updates on efforts related to the UFLPA Entity List, UFLPA Strategy Updates, diplomatic outreach, and CBP enforcement of the UFLPA rebuttal presumption. Meetings will incorporate a robust discussion on ways to improve RBC with regards to the implementation of the UFLPA in the United States and among international partners.” (p.31)

CBP and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) “will improve information sharing with the aim to increase the number of WROs and Findings as well as criminal investigations into allegations of forced labor. Increased information sharing will enhance the relationship between HSI and CBP, which will improve CBP’s ability to identify and prevent the entry of products made with forced labor into the United States through the use of WROs and Findings and to enhance HSI investigations into importers who knowingly violate U.S. trade laws and/or benefit from forced labor.” (p.31)

Table 6: Environment, Climate and Just Transitions Commitments

International Development Finance Corporation will “update its ESPP by clarifying its clients’ responsibilities in assessing supply chains with high risks of child labor and forced labor, significant health and safety issues, or significant conversion of critical forest areas or critical natural habitat in order to promote due diligence. Through this update, clients will better understand DFC expectations with respect to identifying and managing risks in their supply chains, and DFC will be better positioned to assess supply chain risks to mitigate harm.” (p.33)

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) will “develop a microlearning module tailored for ACF grant recipients, which provides information about administrative flexibilities available to respond and recover from climate-mediated events and other natural disasters.” (p.35)

OTIP will also “refresh SOAR Disaster Management: Preventing and Responding to Human Trafficking for the broader anti-trafficking field based on emergent insights. This online training module equips disaster management professionals with the information and resources they need to prevent, identify, and respond to human trafficking during and after disasters or emergencies, including mitigating forced labor during recovery and reconstruction efforts.” (p.36)