Ending forced labor is morally right. It’s also an economic imperative.
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Forced labor distorts global markets
In 2022, 42% of trafficking victims who were intercepted worldwide were funneled into forced labor, outpacing victims of sex trafficking for the first time.
Their exploitation takes many forms, including debt bondage, servitude, and violent coercion at the hands of both private and governmental entities and generates an estimated $236 billion in illicit profits annually.
Robbing men, women and children of their potential and the fruits of their own labor is a moral scourge, but it’s also an economic crisis that has impact far beyond the communities in which it takes place.
Labor exploitation keeps production costs artificially low for the firms and governments that force people to work.
Which in turn undermines competition, stifles innovation, suppresses wages, contributes to migration crises, and fuels generational cycles of poverty and dependence around the world.
Pressure on businesses is escalating
Importing goods made with forced labor to the United States has been illegal since 1930, but pressure on businesses is escalating as global supply chains become more complex.
Customs and Border Patrol withheld more than $1.75 billion worth of goods at the border as a result of forced labor in fiscal year 2024 alone.
As the number of withholds increases, other departments are also continuing to crackdown on targeted forced labor enforcement. Withholds for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 has already reached 55% of the previous year total. Meanwhile, in January, the Department of Homeland Security made the largest addition of Chinese firms to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act entity list since its creation.
While compliance efforts are critical tools in leveling the global playing field, as their cost to businesses increases awareness of their efficacy is lagging.
The threat to the economy is real.
In a time of global economic angst, policymakers and the public are increasingly turning to headline-grabbing trade policies that will have significant unintended consequences without addressing the underlying unfairness in global trade: free, cheap and coerced labor that artificially depress production cost.
The problem is that sweeping tariffs exacerbate the problems they aim to solve — increasing costs on domestic manufacturers, encouraging companies to offshore to countries with looser labor laws, incentivizing forced labor use in countries upon whom tariffs are levied as a method of further offsetting cost of production, and costing American consumers thousands of dollars per year in cost of living increases.
A new approach is needed
That’s why we’re accelerating private-sector solutions, advocating for policies that unleash an ethical economy, and empowering consumers to reward business who clean up their supply chain.
Policies to end exploitation
Expand CBP’s to identify and seize goods made with forced labor.
Increasing the good work CBP is already doing at America’s ports and borders will amplify pressure on the world’s worst offenders, incentivize private-sector supply chain clean up, and spur innovation in the way we identify and address labor violations.
Leverage the UFLPA entity list as a tool at every level of government.
Both congress and the states should adopt ethical guidelines around the distribution of tax breaks, economic incentives, and government purchasing contracts that prevent taxpayer dollars from going to companies featured on the list and require clawbacks if companies are added to the list after receiving funds.
Prioritize ethical labor laws in trade negotiations.
While 42% of trafficking victims intercepted in 2022 were bound for forced labor, only 17% of trafficking prosecutions were filed in labor-related cases that year. The administration should insist that countries with whom we do significant business are preventing child labor abuses, providing for robust investigation of labor violations, and prioritizing labor laws that preserve direct employer-employee relationships.