More than $140bn worth of goods likely to be made by forced labor enter the U.S. market each year, New York-based nonprofit Human Rights First estimates.
But only $8.5m worth of imports have been detained in nearly two years since the ban, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — which is tasked with enforcing it — told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“I am disappointed to see that the administration has not taken any action to seize goods produced by forced labor,” said U.S. House Representative Ron Kind, a champion of the ban, which aims to improve transparency across global supply chains.
Kind was one of nine U.S. House representatives who wrote in October to the CBP voicing their concern over its failure to use the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (TFTEA) to send a clear message to the world about the use of slave labor.
The CBP has only issued four orders to seize 50 shipments it suspected contained goods made under duress since the law was passed.
