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On Wednesday, President Barack Obama signed a law that bars the U.S. from importing a long list of items produced by forced or slave labor.
About 30 percent of children in Bangladesh are laborers, according to the International Labor Organization. (Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The “prohibition on the importation of goods” made with convict labor, forced labor, or indentured labor” was embedded into a broader trade enforcement bill that Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) presented last year.
A loophole in the Tariff Act of 1930 meant that these goods were still making their way into the country because of “consumptive demand” — when goods are in short supply in the U.S.
Some of these include garments that children and other slaves produced in Argentina; cotton and gold from Burkina Faso; electronics, toys and bricks from China; and coffee from the Ivory Coast and textiles from Ethiopia.
About 30 percent of children in Bangladesh are laborers, according to the International Labor Organization.
The goods with the most child and forced labor listings are cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, coffee, cattle and fish. The list also includes items like alcoholic beverages and leather.
