Child Labor in Global Supply Chains: How Are Your Source Countries Doing?

An annual report that companies use as an input into risk assessments and to conduct due diligence on their supply chains shows that most of the 131 countries and territories reviewed are continuing to make progress toward eliminating the worst forms of child labor. Doing so is one of the criteria for eligibility for trade benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences, the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act, and the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Companies are also paying more attention to this issue in the face of increasing efforts by federal agencies to enforce prohibitions against imports made with child labor and forced labor.

The annual report from the Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs tracks from year to year whether a country has made significant, moderate, minimal, or no advancement in eliminating the worst forms of child labor. It also includes more than 2,000 country-specific recommended actions on how best to combat labor abuses.

For 2022, four countries received an assessment of significant advancement, 69 achieved moderate advancement, 46 made minimal advancement, and nine saw no advancement. (In the chart below countries with a + moved up this year, those with a – moved down, and the remainder saw no change.)

ILAB has also made updates to related online tools.

– a redesigned Comply Chain website, which offers businesses a comprehensive set of best practices for developing strong, worker-driven social compliance systems to reduce child labor and forced labor in their supply chains, now includes useful examples of good practices and content focused on helping businessesʼ due diligence efforts

– an updated Sweat & Toil app includes the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor and allows users to view goods produced with exploitative labor by region and sector

– an updated Better Trade Tool allows users to view and analyze U.S. trade data against potential child labor and forced labor risks in U.S. supply chains and now offers a global data dashboard to alert users to the risk of child labor and forced labor in global supply chains

Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg offers a comprehensive suite of services to help companies address child and forced labor concerns around the world, including supply chain reviews, due diligence strategies, and proactive remediation. ST&R also maintains a frequently updated web page offering a broad range of information on forced labor-related efforts in the U.S. and around the world. For more information, please contact ST&R at supplychainvisibility@strtrade.com.