Lawmakers press for investigation into forced labor in seafood supply chains

A group of bipartisan lawmakers are asking the Biden administration to investigate forced labor allegations in seafood supply chains in China.

The group is led by California Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) and Michelle Steel (R-Calif.).

They wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and acting U.S. Customs and Border Protections Commissioner Troy Miller to urge them to evaluate the supply chain’s alleged force labor ahead of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Ministerial Conference next week.

The letter was signed by 12 members to urge the WTO to include a ban on subsidies for fishing activities that use forced labor in its Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.

“Congress has made clear that it is our shared responsibility to combat human trafficking by curbing imports produced with forced labor and sanctioning the companies and individuals responsible,” the members said in a statement.

The Ocean Outlaw Project (OOP) provided evidence that several fishing companies were working with the Chinese government and Chinese provincial governments “to recruit and utilize Uyghur forced labor,” the announcement said.

Previous sanctions have been placed on companies that continue the “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other religious and ethnic minority groups” in the region. Uyghurs have been targeted by the Chinese government for years and the U.S. has labeled the actions a genocide.

“China’s seafood industry has been a clear source of forced labor, and recent reporting by the OOP has drawn much needed attention to the sector,” the members’ statement said. “Given the evidence before us, we have a duty to investigate allegations of forced labor both on the high seas and in seafood processing, especially when it is part of a CCP-sponsored effort to subjugate the minority Uyghur population.”

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