"Forced-labor enforcement: proving a supply chain clean"

US law prohibits the import of goods made wholly or in part with forced labour. Enforcement works by detention: a shipment is held at the border and released only if the importer produces evidence about where the inputs came from.

The evidence has to go back through every tier of the supply chain to raw material. Your supplier's assurance that they do not use forced labour is not evidence, and it will not release a container.

The two mechanisms

Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 prohibits importing goods made with forced labour, convict labour or indentured labour. Customs and Border Protection enforces it by issuing Withhold Release Orders against specific producers, goods or regions. A WRO instructs officers to detain shipments falling within its terms.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, in force since June 2022, works differently and more aggressively. It creates a rebuttable presumption that any goods mined, produced or manufactured wholly or in part in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or by an entity on the associated list, were made with forced labour and are therefore prohibited.

The word "presumption" is the key. Under a normal enforcement action the government builds a case. Here the goods are presumed prohibited and the importer has to rebut that presumption.

What "wholly or in part" means in practice

It means any input at any tier.

A finished garment sewn in a factory with excellent labour conditions is still caught if the cotton came from a prohibited source. A solar panel assembled anywhere in the world is caught if the polysilicon traces back to a prohibited producer.

This is why supply chain visibility is the whole issue. Most importers know their tier one supplier. Enforcement asks about tier four.

The standard of proof

To rebut the presumption, an importer must show by clear and convincing evidence that the goods were not made wholly or in part with forced labour.

Clear and convincing is a demanding standard. It requires documentation that traces the actual inputs in the actual shipment, not a general description of how the supply chain usually works.

CBP has published guidance on the documentation it expects. In practice a rebuttal package needs to show a complete, traceable chain from raw material to finished good for the specific goods detained, supported by transactional records at each step.

What a tracing package contains

The specifics vary by product, but the shape is consistent.

• A supply chain map identifying every entity at every tier, with names, addresses and roles
• Purchase orders, invoices and payment records between each tier
• Production records at each tier: work orders, batch or lot records, output quantities
• Transport documents linking each stage to the next
• Evidence tying the specific inputs to the specific finished goods in the detained shipment, usually through lot or batch numbers
• Origin documentation for the raw material itself
• Records showing how workers were recruited and paid at the relevant facilities

The link between stages is what fails most often. Importers can usually produce documents about each tier and cannot show that the material in tier three became the goods in the container.

Why the documents must exist before shipment

Detention starts a clock. You have a limited period to respond, and goods sitting at a port accrue storage and demurrage charges daily.

Building a tracing package after detention means asking suppliers, several tiers back, for records about a specific batch produced months ago. Some will not have kept them. Some will not respond. Some will not want to identify their own suppliers, because that is their commercial advantage.

Importers who succeed have the documentation before the goods leave, because they required it as a condition of the order.

High-risk categories

Enforcement attention concentrates on sectors where prohibited inputs are known to be common. Cotton and textiles, polysilicon and solar products, tomatoes and processed foods, aluminium, and certain seafood have all seen sustained attention.

Being outside a named sector is not safety. Enforcement priorities widen over time, and the underlying prohibition covers all goods.

Note also that trade measures introduced in 2026 rest on forced labour findings, which tells you where enforcement attention is heading rather than away from.

What to build into a purchase order

Put these in the terms rather than asking after the fact.

A tracing obligation. The supplier must identify their own suppliers for the material inputs, to the tier you specify, and provide records on request.

Record retention. The supplier keeps production and purchase records for a defined period, commonly five years, and provides them within a stated number of days.

A right to audit. You or your representative can verify the chain, including at sub-supplier level.

A representation on origin of inputs, naming the region or regions the material comes from.

A consequence. Who bears the cost if a shipment is detained because the supplier cannot produce records. Without this clause the cost falls entirely on you.

A prohibition on unapproved subcontracting. A factory that quietly subcontracts part of the work has broken your traceability without telling you.

What happens during a detention

The goods are held. You receive a notice.

You then either produce a rebuttal package, or export the goods to another country, or abandon them. There is no fourth option, and demurrage runs throughout.

Rebuttal review takes time. Plan on weeks rather than days, and longer if the initial submission is incomplete.

For a small importer, one detained container can be a serious cash event even if the goods are eventually released, because the storage charges and the delay arrive long before the resolution does.

What to do now

1. Map your supply chain past tier one for your highest-volume products. Most importers cannot do this today, and finding out is the point.
2. Identify which of your inputs come from high-risk sectors.
3. Add the tracing and record-keeping clauses above to your purchase orders.
4. Ask your existing suppliers for a supply chain map for one product, as a test. The response tells you a great deal about whether they could support you under pressure.
5. Keep the documentation on file with each shipment rather than storing it at the supplier.

The short version

Enforcement holds the goods and asks you to prove the inputs are clean, back to raw material, to a demanding standard. The documents have to exist before the shipment moves, because after detention the clock is running and the records are several tiers away.

Ask one supplier for a supply chain map this week. Whatever comes back is your current position.

Verified August 2026. Next review February 2027. Enforcement priorities, entity lists and documentation guidance change. Confirm current requirements with a licensed customs broker or customs attorney.