USTR Publishes Trade Strategy to Combat Forced Labor
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released a trade strategy to combat forced labor, which includes policy successes during the Biden administration and "areas for potential future action" for the next administration, it announced in a Jan. 13 news release.
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The strategy, which was begun in 2022 (see 2207050047), lays out four goals to eradicate forced labor from supply chains: "develop equitable trade policy through inclusive processes; fully utilize all available trade tools to combat forced labor; develop and implement innovative trade tools to combat forced labor; and increase multilateral action with trading partners to combat forced labor as an unfair trade practice."
USTR also acknowledged that previous trade policy under Democratic administrations wasn't effective at curbing forced labor: "Our past trade policy was based on the notion that as trade liberalized, everyone would prosper and that improvements for working people would follow. However, without creating guard rails to ensure that trade was in fact benefiting everyday people, the trading system created a race to the bottom that rewarded worker exploitation, including forced labor."
The strategy highlighted the effectiveness of interagency efforts such as the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force, headed by DHS, and international efforts through free trade agreements and trade and investment framework agreements.
“Combating forced labor has been a centerpiece of the Biden-Harris Administration’s worker-centered trade policy,” USTR Ambassador Katherine Tai said. “While there is more work to be done, this strategy is how USTR is driving a race to the top and addressing this form of unfair economic competition that hurts and dehumanizes people all around the world.”
While the Biden administration has effected a top-down prioritization of combating forced labor across departments (see 2311160046), it is unclear how much, if any, of the strategy will continue to be implemented under the incoming Trump administration.