By David Lawder
WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) – Pro-tariff and human rights groups asked the Trump administration on Tuesday to impose new import bans, duties and quotas to combat forced labor practices in China and other countries and to press trading partners to adopt U.S.-style enforcement mechanisms.
Some 60 witnesses are scheduled to testify at a two-day public hearing on the U.S. Trade Representative’s “Section 301” unfair trade practices investigation into what it calls the failure of 60 countries to enforce bans on imports of goods produced with forced labor.
The probe, along with a separate investigation into excess industrial capacity, is part of an effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to rebuild tariff pressure on trading partners after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his global tariffs imposed under a national emergencies law in February.
The forced labor investigation, launched in mid-March, could result in new tariff actions on countries such as China and Russia, but also U.S. allies, including Australia, Canada, the European Union, Britain, Israel, India, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has said he wants to complete the probes by July, when a temporary 10% tariff is due to expire.
The witnesses span advocacy groups, human rights groups, U.S. industry groups and representatives of foreign governments, according to USTR’s schedule.
The Coalition for a Prosperous America, a pro-tariff group representing domestic industries, called on USTR to “complement tariff action with quantitative import management tools suited to the forced labor problem.”
These include import licensing for supply chains with documented forced labor risks, putting the onus on importers to prove that their goods were not produced with forced labor before clearing customs, CPA senior economist Mihir Torsekar said in prepared testimony.
“Forced labor operates as a hidden production subsidy,” Torsekar said. “When a producer pays workers nothing, or suppresses wages through debt bondage, document confiscation, or state-imposed coercion, the cost savings flow directly into lower unit production costs.”
New tariff rate quotas for certain sectors like solar products, cotton textiles and seafood would cap import volumes in these high-risk areas, and quotas could be allocated based on demonstrated compliance with forced-labor provisions, he added.
CHINA’S XINJIANG TARGETED
The U.S. already has imposed a general ban on imports from China’s Xinjiang region, which produces a fifth of the world’s cotton and nearly half of its polysilicon, a key ingredient in solar panels. The U.S. has accused China of detaining millions of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in work camps producing such goods, which cannot be imported into the U.S. under the Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
But some witnesses at the hearing said that other countries have failed to take similar steps to ban products from Xinjiang, which is growing as a center of critical minerals production.
Samir Goswami, director of forced labor programs at Global Rights Compliance, a human rights non-profit group, said that Britain’s Modern Slavery Act focuses on corporate supply chain transparency, “but it does not prohibit the import of goods made with forced labor.”
An EU regulation is stronger, but it will not fully apply until 2027, Goswami said.
“Without tools comparable to the U.S. rebuttable presumption for high-risk regions like Xinjiang, authorities may face significant challenges in identifying forced labor in opaque supply chains,” Goswami said, adding that the U.S. should seek enforceable forced labor import bans as part of its trade agreements.
TECH GROUP URGES TARIFF CAUTION
But some industry groups cautioned against using the forced labor investigation to reimpose broad tariffs.
The Consumer Technology Association said that USTR needs to demonstrate a clear link between a country’s forced labor enforcement regulations and a burden on U.S. commerce.
“The relevant question is whether forced-labor goods enter the U.S. market, not whether they enter foreign markets,” CTA Vice President of International Trade Ed Brzytwa said in public comments submitted to USTR.
The group, which represents importers of consumer electronics to tech startups, said USTR should consider alternatives to more tariffs, such as coordinated international actions to help countries build up forced labor bans.
“USTR should avoid measures that shift costs onto workers rather than addressing the underlying practices of forced labor,” Brzytwa said.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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