American politicians are stepping up pressure on Canada and Mexico to stop imports of goods made by forced labour.
In public remarks, some have already noted statistical evidence that Canada has not done any of the enforcement it promised to under the new NAFTA.
Now they’re putting it in writing. And they’re tying the issue to future trade negotiations, with the continental trade agreement up for review starting in 2026.
Four members of the U.S. Congress have written to the trade ministers of the North American countries, demanding that forced labour be taken more seriously.
The letter — addressed to the U.S.’s Katherine Tai, Mexico’s Raquel Buenrostro and Canada’s Mary Ng — frets that imprisoned Uyghurs in China are still being abused, and forced to make products.
They identified a list of goods including tomato products, cotton, polysilicon, aluminum and seafood.
“There is more to be done,” said the letter from two Democrats and two Republicans — senators Jeff Merkley and Marco Rubio, and House members Chris Smith and Jim McGovern.
“This horrendous behavior has not abated.”
The letter specifically mentions Canada as being a back door onto the continent for goods already blocked by the U.S.
Letter shares details on U.S. complaint
It’s well known that the U.S. has stopped thousands of shipments of suspected forced-labour goods under a recently adopted law, while Canada has stopped none.
The letter sheds new light, however, on a U.S. complaint: Some of the goods being stopped south of the border are being rerouted through Canada.
The letter authors say U.S. customs officials told them a shipment of solar panels denied entry into the U.S. later made it into Canada — with a second attempt, later, to bring it to the U.S.
American lawmakers hold considerable influence over international trade policy. They must be consulted during trade negotiations, under U.S. law, and they must vote to approve any future agreement.
The four who signed that letter, dated Sept. 18, have a personal involvement in the issue. They spearheaded the forced-labour law that took effect in the U.S. in 2022, and are members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a bipartisan body monitoring human-rights issues in China.
CBC Marketplace’s Asha Tomlinson and Eric Szeto posed as tomato brokers to get access to Chinese tomato companies and asked them questions about the use of Uyghur labour in their workforce. In Xinjiang, a remote area of western China, Uyghurs are subjected to mass detention, surveillance and torture by the Chinese government.
Their recently enacted bill, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, created a list of products allegedly made under coercion by workers in Chinese camps.
The United States has already had a law for nearly a century targeting goods produced forced labour, and it applies to goods from around the world. But its newest legislation specifically targets China, with the strictest provisions yet.
Under that new bill, if a shipment of these goods is detected at the U.S. border, it’s automatically halted; to get it in, the importer then faces a difficult task: proving that the goods were not, in fact, made through coerced labour.
It’s called a rebuttable presumption; in their letter, the four members of Congress urged other North American countries to consider that approach.
Their letter also urges better co-ordination: for example, if a shipment like those above-mentioned solar panels were to get blocked by one country, they say it should be blocked by neighbours, too.
How this issue fits into North American trade
Canada, Mexico and the U.S. agreed to root out forced-labour goods under Article 23.6 of the new North American trade agreement, best known in the U.S. as the USMCA.
Canada did already pass a bill last year that requires large companies to file annual reports on steps they’ve taken to stop these imports.
The Trudeau government has also told CBC News it’s working on another bill, with plans to have it in Parliament this year.
Ottawa hints this bill will not be quite as punitive as the U.S. one — there won’t be the same reverse-burden of proof on importers.
The letter from these members of Congress, however, indicates that U.S. lawmakers could use future trade negotiations to press for more changes.
Under the current North American trade agreement, the pact must be renewed, or it will expire in 2036; renewal talks start in 2026.
Canadian officials have expressed a preference for limited negotiations, with minor updates to the pact; the Americans, however, from officials close to both Joe Biden and Donald Trump, have made it clear they foresee a more substantive overhaul.
Some U.S. lawmakers, clearly, want forced labour to be part of that overhaul.