US Warns of Forced Labor Risks in South Sudan's Cattle Industry
The Commerce, State and Labor departments highlighted South Sudan’s cattle industry as a forced labor risk in an updated business advisory released this week. The Labor Department said it has a “reasonable basis to believe” cattle sourced from the country is produced by “forced or indentured child labor,” calling the sector a “significant industry in South Sudan with potential to expose U.S. business and individuals to significant reputational and legal risks.”
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The Labor Department included cattle from South Sudan on its most recent lists of products and goods that are likely to have been produced using forced or indentured forced child labor, which "should be viewed as a warning to businesses to review their supply chains and take reasonable measures to guard against complicity in labor violations,” the advisory said. The agencies urged companies “engaging in cattle-related business in South Sudan or whose industry suppliers source raw materials from South Sudan to adopt due diligence practices in line with the” Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s guidance on responsible agricultural supply chains.
To aid with compliance, companies can use the Labor Department’s digital Better Trade Tool, a platform that “links trade data to available information on labor exploitation around the world,” the advisory said. The tool uses data on goods and country pairings that the agency believes have ties to forced labor and combines it with Census Bureau import trade data and “classification and mapping” to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. to allow importers to “make strategic decisions based on better data.”
The Labor Department gave South Sudan an “assessment of no advancement” in its 2021 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. The advisory said the 2022 report will be released in September.