US lawmakers on Friday said that the US government needs to ban the import of products made with child or forced labor after an Associated Press (AP) investigation found widespread exploitation in the palm oil industry, from debt bondage to outright slavery.
US senators Sherrod Brown and Ron Wyden — who spearheaded efforts to close a loophole in a federal law that had allowed the import of products made with forced labor — also called on companies that buy goods tainted by labor abuses to be held accountable.
“The federal government needs to enforce this law and investigate all instances of forced labor in supply chains and block imports made with forced labor from coming into the US,” said Brown, a Democrat. “In addition to strong government enforcement, corporations need to hold themselves accountable.”
Photo: AP
An AP investigation into the US$65 billion palm oil industry found labor abuses among an invisible workforce consisting of millions of men, women and children from some of the poorest corners of Asia, including stateless Rohingya Muslims sold onto plantations after fleeing persecution in their homeland.
The fruit they harvest makes its way into the supply chains of the planet’s most iconic food and cosmetics companies like Unilever, L’Oreal, Nestle and Procter & Gamble.
Reporters interviewed more than 130 current and former workers from two dozen companies across wide swaths of Malaysia and Indonesia, which together produce 85 percent of the global supply.
They described various forms of exploitation, with the most serious abuses including child labor, outright slavery and allegations of rape.
“With all the technology and tracking capabilities we have now, companies can identify the sources of all the components that go into their products,” Brown said.
The US in 2016 closed an 85-year-old loophole that allowed items produced by child or forced labor overseas to be imported to meet domestic consumptive demand after an AP investigation exposed slavery in the seafood industry, resulting in the freeing of more than 2,000 men.
US President Donald Trump has since ordered the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to step up the seizure of unethically produced goods, from seafood and electronics to products believed to have been made by Muslim Uighurs in labor camps in China.
“CBP needs to do its job and investigate credible allegations of products coming into our country that violate US law,” said Wyden, a Democrat.
In addition to companies, the AP also found giant Western financial institutions — including Deutsche Bank, BNY Mellon, Citigroup, HSBC and the Vanguard Group — have helped fuel a crop that has exploded globally.
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