US senators urge CBP to stop importing apparel made with forced labour

The senators urged acting CBP commissioner Troy Miller to enforce the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which allows the agency to conduct oversight of trading partners’ supply chains, including visits to and audits of apparel factories, a press release from the US Senate Committee on Finance said.

“Recent reports of textile and apparel mill closures in the United States raise serious concerns as the lack of effective customs enforcement has been cited repeatedly as a key factor contributing to declining demand,” the senators wrote.

“Insufficient enforcement can create a pathway for banned Xinjiang cotton to infiltrate regional supply chains and undermine efforts to enforce the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act. For this reason, robust and consistent enforcement of the origin and content rules in US trade agreements, along with the longstanding US ban on products made with forced labour, is essential to securing this supply chain and guaranteeing workers, businesses, and consumers the benefits bargained for in CAFTA-DR and USMCA,” their letter said.

As a significant producer of cotton, it is critical that the United States take every step necessary to support domestic textile and apparel producers, the senators said, urging CBP to take actions that are quicker, tougher and directly responsive to the trade cheating that happens before these products are sent to the United States and keep those textiles from entering our country.

The senators highlighted several significant steps that could be taken immediately and efficiently to improve enforcement.

These include significantly increasing on-site and surprise verifications of textile facilities in the regions;  providing technical assistance and information sharing arrangements with customs authorities in the regions; and improving targeting of illicit or fraudulent shipments by providing a Spanish language version of e-allegation and asking governments, companies and non-governmental organisations in the regions to share information regarding this reporting portal.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (DS)