Customs and Border Protection has changed how it’s implementing America’s forced labor import ban, prompting questions from lawmakers, human rights activists and China hawks who are watching how President Donald Trump’s administration will handle the issue.
Those questions have renewed urgency now that Trump has launched additional tariffs on many countries, which will take time and manpower for customs officials to implement, and may detract from forced labor prevention efforts.
When the landmark Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act went into effect in June 2022, solar panels with suspected manufacturing ties to slave labor started to pile up at U.S. ports. But now, two-and-a-half years later, those seizures have fallen off a cliff — and the overall value of shipments halted under the ban has plummeted to the lowest level since CBP’s first week implementing the law.