[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 63 (Thursday, April 19, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4752-S4753]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. HARKIN:
  S. 1157. 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 rise to introduce legislation 
that will 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.
  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, and cotton.
  Throughout my Senate career, I have worked to reduce the use of 
forced child labor worldwide. It was in 1992 that I first introduced a 
bill to ban all products made by abusive and exploitative child labor 
from entering the United States.
  Over the years we have been making some progress. I was heartened 
last year when the International Labor Organization's (ILO) global 
report, The End of Child Labor Within Reach, detailed the progress 
being made on reducing the worst forms of child labor. The ILO projects 
that if the current pace of decline in child labor were to be 
maintained, child labor could be eliminated, in most of its worst 
forms, in 10 years--by 2016. Although there has been a tremendous 
amount of progress in ending child labor, there are still

[[Page S4753]]

some obstacles to ending these abusive practices. One of those 
impediments is the consumptive demand clause.
  Today, hundreds of millions of children are still forced to work 
illegally for little or no pay, making goods that enter our country 
everyday. For this reason, 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, 
162 other countries have also ratified this ILO Convention.
  Additionally, 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. Yet there has been no 
action from the Bush Administration to support efforts to remove the 
clause.
  Retaining the consumptive demand clause contradicts our moral beliefs 
and 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 U.S. consumers need 
an item not produced in this country. Last year, Harvard University 
conducted a pilot study on the effects on sales of labeling towels, 
candles, and dolls as made under ``fair labor conditions.'' The study 
found that labeling the products and raising their prices slightly to 
cover the costs of ensuring fair labor conditions resulted in an 
increased demand for these products among certain consumers in New York 
City.
  There should be no exception to a fundamental stand against the use 
of slave labor. I urge my colleagues to support this measure.
                                 ______