18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies · Minor
Have future FTAs eliminate all forms of forced or compulsory labor
Not started
Printed page 613 18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies
“For future FTAs, the USTR should replicate the labor provisions of USMCA, especially the provisions to: … Eliminate all forms of forced or compulsory labor.”
What has happened
- Not started
No new free trade agreement has been concluded, and so none contains the forced- and compulsory-labor elimination provision the Quote asks for. The window's trade instruments — the United Kingdom Economic Prosperity Deal and the United States-Japan Agreement, both implemented by executive order — carry no labor obligations.
No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Negative search: chapter log, Cluster negative search — the trade asks (#1692, #1693, #1694, #1695, #1696).
- Forced labor did move in the window, but through import enforcement rather than trade agreements: the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act entity list continued to grow and Customs and Border Protection continued withhold-release orders. That is a different instrument from an FTA obligation and carries no Status event here (§3b).
- Action
- eliminate
- Object
- Forced or compulsory labor provisions in future free trade agreements
- ID
- 1693