§7112 — Title 22 Foreign Relations and Intercourse | U.S. Code

Summary

A 2005 State Department report showed that many countries on the trafficking worst-practices list had problems with forced labor, including women forced into domestic work. Congress wants the State Department’s anti‑trafficking office to pay more attention to forced labor. The Secretary of State must regularly give the Department of Labor information about child labor and forced labor used to make goods so Labor can use that information. The Secretary of Labor, through the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, must do more to track and fight forced and child labor abroad. The Bureau must monitor those abuses; share forced‑labor trafficking information with the State office; make and publish a list of goods believed to be made with forced or child labor (including goods using inputs made that way); work with producers on safer practices; and coordinate with other U.S. agencies to keep such products out of U.S. markets. The Bureau must send that goods list to Congress by December 1, 2014, and every two years after.

Title 22, §7112

Foreign Relations and Intercourse — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)(1)Congress finds that in the report submitted to Congress by the Secretary of State in June 2005 pursuant to section 7107(b) of this title, the list of countries whose governments do not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and are not making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance was composed of a large number of countries in which the trafficking involved forced labor, including the trafficking of women into domestic servitude.

(2)It is the sense of Congress that the Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking of the Department of State should intensify the focus of the Office on forced labor in the countries described in paragraph (1) and other countries in which forced labor continues to be a serious human rights concern.

(3)The Secretary of State shall, on a regular basis, provide information relating to child labor and forced labor in the production of goods in violation of international standards to the Department of Labor to be used in developing the list described in subsection (b)(2)(C).

(b)(1)The Secretary of Labor, acting through the head of the Bureau of International Labor Affairs of the Department of Labor, shall carry out additional activities to monitor and combat forced labor and child labor in foreign countries as described in paragraph (2).

(2)The additional activities referred to in paragraph (1) are—

(A)to monitor the use of forced labor and child labor in violation of international standards;

(B)to provide information regarding trafficking in persons for the purpose of forced labor to the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking of the Department of State for inclusion in trafficking in persons report required by section 7107(b) of this title;

(C)to develop and make available to the public a list of goods from countries that the Bureau of International Labor Affairs has reason to believe are produced by forced labor or child labor in violation of international standards, including, to the extent practicable, goods that are produced with inputs that are produced with forced labor or child labor;

(D)to work with persons who are involved in the production of goods on the list described in subparagraph (C) to create a standard set of practices that will reduce the likelihood that such persons will produce goods using the labor described in such subparagraph; and

(E)to consult with other departments and agencies of the United States Government to reduce forced and child labor internationally and ensure that products made by forced labor and child labor in violation of international standards are not imported into the United States.

(3)Not later than December 1, 2014, and every 2 years thereafter, the Secretary of Labor shall submit the list developed under paragraph (2)(C) to Congress.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Section was enacted as part of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, and not as part of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 which comprises this chapter.

Amendments

2019—Subsec. (b)(2)(C). Pub. L. 115–425 inserted “, including, to the extent practicable, goods that are produced with inputs that are produced with forced labor or child labor” after “international standards”. 2013—Subsec. (a)(3). Pub. L. 113–4, § 1233, added par. (3). Subsec. (b)(3). Pub. L. 113–4, § 1232, added par. (3).

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Consultative Group To Eliminate the Use of Child Labor and Forced Labor in Imported Agricultural Products Pub. L. 110–246, title III, § 3205, June 18, 2008, 122 Stat. 1838, provided for the establishment of a consultative group to make recommendations to the Secretary of Agriculture relating to guidelines to reduce the likelihood that agricultural products imported into the United States were produced with the use of forced labor or child labor and for the group’s authority to terminate on Dec. 31, 2012.

§7112 Additional Activities to Monitor and Combat Forced Labor and Child Labor