President Barack Obama signed a bill Wednesday that includes a provision banning U.S. imports of fish caught by slaves in Southeast Asia, gold mined by children in Africa and garments sewn by abused women in Bangladesh, closing a loophole in an 85-year-old tariff law that has failed to keep products of forced and child labor out of America.
President Barack Obama signs H.R. 1428, Judicial Redress Act of 2015, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 24, 2016. (L-R) U.S. Trade Ambassador Mike Froman, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Representative Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), EU Ambassador David OSullivan, and Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
President Barack Obama signed a bill Wednesday that includes a provision banning U.S. imports of fish caught by slaves in Southeast Asia, gold mined by children in Africa and garments sewn by abused women in Bangladesh, closing a loophole in an 85-year-old tariff law that has failed to keep products of forced and child labor out of America.
An expose by The Associated Press last year found Thai companies ship seafood to the U.S. that was caught and processed by trapped and enslaved workers. As a result of the reports, more than 2,000 trapped fishermen have been rescued, more than a dozen alleged traffickers arrested and millions of dollars’ worth of seafood and vessels seized.
