Former CBP Head Says Most US Companies Use Reasonable Care to Avoid Importing Forced Labor Goods
Former Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, testifying at a Senate Homeland Security subcommittee hearing, said that in order to implement more withhold release orders, the Department of Homeland Security needs more resources to do investigations in the foreign countries where forced labor is alleged.
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McAleenan, who was responding to questions from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., during the June 16 hearing, said the pace of concluding investigations at the Office of Trade is accelerating, but the gap between the orders in place and the Department of Labor's report on forced labor and the worst forms of child labor shows the scale of the problem.
McAleenan said that when the department first increased its focus on forced labor, after the passage of a trade bill in 2015 closing a loophole in enforcement, it issued some WROs without proper coordination with the State Department and the Defense Department. "I think it's improved significantly over time," he said, and now, people serving at U.S. embassies abroad are able to help with investigations, as well. He credited pressure from the Senate for driving more enforcement.
Hawley asked if American companies are exercising the reasonable care that the statute requires to make sure forced labor is not in their supply chains. McAleenan replied that customs brokers "really try to ensure the highest level of professionalism," and that more than 55% of the imports to the U.S. are provided by Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism members. "The majority of players ... are meeting that reasonable care standard," he said, though he acknowledged there are bad players. "There are companies that disappear overnight as soon as they begin to be investigated," he said.