Chamber Recommendations on Trade Strategy to Combat Forced Labor

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce submitted comments on USTR’s development of a focused trade strategy to combat forced labor. We hope they prove helpful as USTR works to establish an action plan for utilizing existing and new trade tools to combat forced labor in traded goods and services.

The Chamber condemns the use of forced labor in supply chains around the world and fully supports the Administration’s efforts to end this abhorrent practice. As USTR develops its Strategy, we urge officials to engage in continuous and substantive engagement with the private sector and the broader trade community. Many companies have made and will continue to make significant investments in comprehensive supply chain mapping and due diligence tools, which the U.S. government should encourage, not disincentivize. In this respect, collaboration with industry will be of paramount importance to the success of the Strategy.

Additionally, cooperation with like-minded countries and allies should be a priority as the Strategy is shaped. We urge the Administration to adopt a multilateral approach in implementing such a policy by coordinating on similar initiatives with key partners around the world. These frameworks should seek to optimize the possible alignment of actions taken by other countries with the U.S. approach to address the fundamental causes of forced labor.