The United States Trade Representative (USTR) recently released its first-ever Trade Strategy to Combat Forced Labor, which covers the seafood supply chain and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing prominently.
The USTR said the new strategy is the first time the U.S. has ever laid out a comprehensive approach to using trade tools to combat forced labor in supply chains. USTR Ambassador Katherine Tai said the new strategy is intended to use trade as a tool to reduce and eventually end the presence of forced labor in the U.S. supply chain.
“Combatting forced labor has been a centerpiece of the Biden-Harris administration’s worker-centered trade policy,” Tai said. “While there is more work to be done, this strategy is how USTR is driving a race to the top and addressing this form of unfair economic competition that hurts and dehumanizes people all around the world.”
The new strategy prominently mentions seafood and the seafood supply chain. It highlights IUU fishing and said preventing the importation of fish and fish products caught, farmed, or processed with forced labor is a priority for the USTR.
The strategy also highlighted different pieces of legislation the U.S. government has used to combat the presence of seafood caught with IUU and forced labor in the supply chain – including the Maritime SAFE Act, the National Security Memorandum to Combat Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing and Associated Labor Abuse, and NOAA’s Collaborative Accelerator for Lawful Maritime Conditions in Seafood (CALM-CS) Public-Private Initiative.
“These tools demonstrate the steadfast commitment of the United States to address the problem of IUU fishing, including by distant-water fishing vessels, and associated labor rights abuses, including the use of forced labor in the seafood supply chain,” the trade strategy states.
The USTR proposed a new strategy back in 2022, and at the time the National Fisheries Institute urged it to support things like the FISH Standard for Crew and utilizing existing forced labor authorities and programs, and to ensure all allegations are rooted in fact and avoid broadly tarnishing the seafood industry.
“Seafood is the most traded of all major proteins, and USTR is the nation’s trade policy leader,” NFI wrote at the time ...