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Updated April 19, 2022
Section 307 and Imports Produced by Forced Labor

Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. §1307)
prohibits importing any product that was mined, produced,
or manufactured wholly or in part by forced labor,
including forced or indentured child labor. U.S. Customs
and Border Protection (CBP) enforces the prohibition.
Defining Forced Labor in Section 307
Forced Labor: All work or service which is exacted from any person
under the menace of any penalty for its nonperformance and for
which the worker does not offer himself voluntarily. - 19 U.S.C.
§1307; language modeled on the ILO Forced Labor Convention, 1930.
U.S. customs law has prohibited importing goods produced
by certain categories of labor since the end of the nineteenth
century. Beginning in 1890, the United States prohibited
imports of goods manufactured with convict labor. In 1930,
Congress expanded this prohibition in Section 307 of the
Tariff Act to include any (not just manufactured) products
of forced labor. Although a few Members brought up
humanitarian concerns during debate, the central legislative
concern was protecting domestic producers from competing
with products made with forced labor. As such, Section 307
allowed the admission of products of forced labor if it could
be shown that no comparable product was made in the
United States or the level of domestic production did not
meet domestic demand (consumptive demand clause).
Over the decades, lawmakers and civil society became
increasingly concerned about forced labor in the context of
human trafficking. The Victims of Trafficking and Violence
Prevention Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-386), for example,
included forced labor in its definition of human trafficking.
Similarly, Congress removed the consumptive demand
clause, as part of the Trade Facilitation and Trade
Enforcement Act (P.L. 114-125) in 2015. Since then, and
amid ongoing interest in worker rights in trade policy and
anti-trafficking, CBP's use of Section 307 has increased.
Application of Section 307
Reportng
Any individual who has reason to believe that any class of
merchandise that is being, or is likely to be, imported into
the United States is being produced by forced labor may
communicate that belief to CBP (Figure 1). As required by
19 C.F.R. § 12.42, port directors and other principal customs
officers must report such instances to the CBP
Commissioner. Persons outside of CBP may choose to
report to the Commissioner, to any port director, or online.
Investigations and Withhold Release Orders
Upon receipt of such a report, the Commissioner of CBP is
required to initiate an investigation as appears warranted
by the amount and reliability of the submitted information.
If the Commissioner of CBP finds the information
reasonably but not conclusively indicates that imports
may be the product of forced labor, then she or he is to

issue an order to withhold release of such goods (WRO)
pending further instructions. CBP has usually issued WROs
that target specific goods from specific producers.
Figure 1. Application of Section 307
Recept of    CBP Commissioner
allegation or   initiates CBP
self initiation  investigation.
CBP Comr sgoner
issues a WHRO.
Y4_
Importer may export
merchandise or
contest the WRO
Any final findings
are published in the
Federal Reginter.
CBP seizes ton exported
-     mer aise and commences
i fcfitre proceedings.
Source: CBP.
An importer has three months to contest a WRO and must
demonstrate every reasonable effort has been made to
determine both the source and type of labor used to produce
the merchandise and its components. If the importer does
not successfully contest the WRO and does not remove the
merchandise at issue from the United States, CBP is to
seize and destroy it. Beyond publishing the date, type of
merchandise, manufacturer, and status of a WRO, CBP
does not generally publish information about specific
detentions, reexportations, exclusions, or seizures.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement can pursue criminal
investigations of Section 307 violations.
Other Labor and Ant-Trafficking Measures
WROs are one of several congressionally mandated forced
labor and anti-human trafficking measures. Others include
the Department of Labor's Findings on the Worst Forms of
Child Labor (prepared in accordance with the Trade and
Development Act of 2000, P.L. 106-200) and List of Goods
Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor (required by the
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of
2005, P.L. 109-164). These reports contain country profiles
and lists of goods suspected to have been produced by child
or forced labor, but have traditionally been used to increase
awareness rather than to inform CBP actions. More broadly,
various international conventions and guidelines of the
United Nations and International Labor Organization (ILO)
address forced labor, and have informed U.S. approaches.
TrendsE
Following its enactment in 1930, Section 307 was rarely
used to block imports. The International Trade Commission
reported that between 1930 and the mid-1980s there were
approximately 60 to 75 instances when either interested
parties requested or Customs considered the application of

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