[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 60 (Tuesday, May 10, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4876-S4877]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. HARKIN:
  S. 992. A bill to amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to eliminate the 
consumptive demand exception relating to the importation of goods made 
with forced labor; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, today, I am proposing to strike the 
consumptive demand clause from Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 
(19 U.S.C. 1307). Section 307 prohibits the importation of any product 
or good produced with forced or indentured labor including forced or 
indentured child labor.
  The consumptive demand clause creates an exception to this 
prohibition. Under the exception, if a product is not made in the 
United States, and there is a demand for it, then a product made with 
forced or indentured child labor may be imported into this country.

[[Page S4877]]

  Let us be clear: forced or indentured labor means work which is 
extracted from any person under the menace of penalty for 
nonperformance and for which the worker does not offer himself 
voluntarily. Let us be really clear: this means slave labor. In the 
case of children, it means child slavery.
  Some examples of goods that are made with child slave labor include 
cocoa beans, hand-knotted carpets, beedis, which are small Indian 
cigarettes, soccer balls and cotton.
  Throughout my Senate career, I have worked to reduce the use of 
forced child labor worldwide.
  In 2003, my staff was invited by Customs to meet with field agents on 
Section 307 to discuss what appropriations were needed to enforce the 
statute. At the meeting, the field agents reported that the consumptive 
demand clause was an obstacle to their ability to enforce the law that 
is supposed to prevent goods made with slave labor from being imported 
into the United States.
  The consumptive demand clause is outdated. Since this exception was 
enacted in the 1930s, the U.S. has taken numerous steps to stop the 
scourge of child slave labor. Most notably, the United States has 
ratified International Labor Organization's Convention 182 to Prohibit 
the Worst forms of Child Labor. Currently, 152 other countries have 
also ratified this ILO Convention.
  Retaining the consumptive clause contradicts our international 
commitments to eliminate abusive child labor. Maintaining the 
consumptive demand clause says to the world that the United States 
justifies the use of slave labor, if US consumers need an item not 
produced in this country. There should be no exception to a fundamental 
stand against the use of slave labor. it is my hope that Congress will 
act.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                 S. 992

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. GOODS MADE WITH FORCED OR INDENTURED LABOR.

       (a) In General.--The second sentence of section 307 of the 
     Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1307) is amended by striking 
     ``; but in no case'' and all that follows to the end period.
       (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section 
     applies to goods entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for 
     consumption, on or after the date that is 15 days after the 
     date of enactment of this Act.
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