The Congressional Research Service has issued a report (R40502) on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and the evolving economic and strategic architectures of Asia.
Forced Labor
CBP is the primary U.S. agency tasked with combating forced labor in international trade. It is the only agency with legal authority to take enforcement action and prevent entry into domestic commerce of goods produced with forced labor. CBP combats forced labor by issuing Withhold Release Orders (WROs) and Findings, and enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), and Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). Goods subject to WROs and Findings, UFLPA, and CAATSA status cannot be entered at any ports of the U.S.
The Department of Labor has published its ninth annual report on its Findings of the Worst Forms of Child Labor for 2009, in accordance with the Trade and Development Act of 2000 (TDA).
The Labor Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) has updated the list of goods (and countries of origin) it has reason to believe are produced by child labor and/or forced labor, in violation of international standards. This is ILAB’s first update to the list, which was first published in September 2009.
The Labor Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) has issued an initial determination with proposed revisions to its list of products requiring federal contractor certification as they might have been mined, produced, or manufactured by forced or indentured child labor.1
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission1 has submitted its 2010 Annual Report to Congress on the national security implications of bilateral trade and the economic relationship between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China.
Deputy Undersecretary of Labor Polaski issued a statement on November 9, 2010 to clarify that contrary to a recent statement by India's Ministry of Textiles, the Labor Department has not yet made a final determination about whether carpets from India are produced with child labor, forced child labor, or forced labor.
1. President Identifies Major Drug Transit/Production Countries
The Congressional Research Service has issued a report entitled “The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement,” in which it discusses potential issues with U.S. participation in the TPP.
With thousands of people forced into labor, servitude or the sex trade each year, the United Nations General Assembly formally launched the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons on August 31, 2010, one month after its adoption as a consensus resolution outlining the terms of the Plan. “With this Global Action Plan, the UN has announced its steadfast commitment to stop human trafficking,” said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The release states that human trafficking was among the worst human rights violations and constituted “slavery in the modern age”. No country was immune — almost all played a part, either as a source of trafficked people, transit point or destination.
On July 20, 2010, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Coast Longshore Division, Costa Rica’s Sindicato de Trabajadores, and Costa Rica's Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados submitted a petition against the government of Costa Rica charging that Costa Rica is violating the DR-CAFTA by not enforcing its own labor laws.