In a recent Reuters article, “U.S. blocks slave-made goods to ‘safeguard American jobs,’” insights from the Institute’s Director of Corporate and Government Relations Annick Febrey were highlighted. The piece, published on September 20, outlined the ways in which modern day, global slavery negatively influences U.S. businesses and the American job market.

In the 2018 report on modern day slavery and child labor, released by the U.S. Department of Labor, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta framed the practice as an economic issue, as well as a human rights problem.

“American workers cannot compete with producers abroad who use child labor or forced labor, provide unsafe working conditions, or do not pay workers what they are legally owed,” Acosta wrote in the report. “These reprehensible practices undercut the higher standards we maintain to protect the well-being of our workforce here at home.”

Febrey noted that more than $400 billion worth of goods likely to be made by forced labor enter the U.S. market each year. She said the Department of Labor’s change in tone echoed President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda on international trade issues and could mean a more sustained effort to block forced labor-made goods from entering the country.

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