The Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs has released its annual report describing the efforts of 131 countries and territories to eliminate the worst forms of child labor, which 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.
For more information on the trade-related impacts of child and forced labor, please contact trade consultant Nicole Bivens Collinson at (202) 730-4956 or trade attorney Elise Shibles at (415) 490-1403.
This report provides information to governments on how best to combat labor abuses, including more than 1,900 country-specific recommended actions, of which nearly 1,200 concern improvements in labor and criminal laws and enforcement. In addition, companies use this report as an input into risk assessments and to conduct due diligence on their supply chains. To aid in this effort the DOL makes available a mobile application that provides companies with detailed guidance on how to develop robust social compliance systems that prevent, detect, and address child labor in their supply chains.
The report tracks from year to year whether a country has made significant, moderate, minimal, or no advancement in eliminating the worst forms of child labor. For 2018, 12 countries received an assessment of significant advancement, 67 achieved moderate advancement, 42 made minimal advancement, and 9 saw no advancement.
| Remained on significant achievement list | Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Paraguay, Rwanda, Serbia, Tunisia |
| Up from moderate to significant advancement | El Salvador |
| Down from significant to moderate advancement | Brazil, Honduras, Mauritius, Peru, Thailand |
| Remained on moderate advancement list | Albania, Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chile, Cook Islands, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Indonesia, Jamaica, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Philippines, Saint Lucia, Sri Lanka, Togo, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Western Sahara, and Zimbabwe |
| Up from minimal to moderate advancement | Chad, Comoros, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Samoa, Senegal, Suriname, Ukraine, Zambia |
| Up from no to moderate advancement | Saint Helena, Ascensión, and Tristán da Cunha |
| Remained on minimal advancement list | Anguilla, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Maldives, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Congo, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and Yemen |
| Down from significant to minimal advancement | South Africa |
| Up from no to minimal advancement | Falkland Islands, Montserrat, Niue, Tokelau, Tonga |
| Remained on no advancement list | Burma, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Eritrea, Norfolk Island, South Sudan |
| Down from minimal to no advancement | British Virgin Islands, Grenada |
| Down from moderate to no advancement | Afghanistan |