"A Much-Needed Rule on Forced Labor", 15 May 2015

Like all controversial legislation, the trade bills making their way through the Senate are filled with provisions that can be hard to keep track of. One important measure that deserves more attention than it has gotten is a proposal to close a loophole that has for decades allowed businesses to import goods made with forced, prison, indentured and other exploitative labor. American law has ostensibly prohibited the importation of goods made with forced labor since 1932. But the law has a major loophole that allows companies to import those goods as long as there is a “consumptive demand” for them in the United States that cannot be fulfilled by domestic production. That exclusion makes the prohibition against forced labor very ineffective...The measure to get rid of the loophole is currently part of a trade-enforcement bill that the Senate approved by a 78-20 vote on Thursday...