US labor department proposes freeing Vietnamese garments from extra procedures

Vietnamese garments can be removed from the list of products requiring federal contractor certification regarding use of forced or indentured child labor, the United States Department of Labor has proposed.

Executive Order 13126, signed by then U.S. President Bill Clinton in June 1999, requires contractors on the Labor Department’s list to prove that their products were not made using forced labor.

In its comment proposing the removal of Vietnamese garments from the list, the labor department said: “While children previously worked under forced labor conditions in the production of garments, the use of forced child labor appears to have been significantly reduced.”

The Labor Department, the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security have reached a preliminary conclusion that “there is no longer a reasonable basis” to believe that garments from Vietnam are produced by forced or indentured child labor, except in a few isolated instances.

The department had added Vietnamese garments to the force labor watch-list in 2012, citing some cases of child labor. Vietnamese authorities have since shut down all responsible criminal rings and the Blue Dragon Children's Foundation, a local non-governmental organization (NGO), found no use of children used for sweatshop labor in 2017.

The U.S. Labor Department has noted that authorities have updated the Vietnamese legal framework to fortify measures against forced child labor. It has asked for comments on proposed changes to be submitted no later than June 10.

According to customs data, the U.S. was Vietnam biggest export market in the first four months of this year, accounting for with revenues of $34.72 billion, up 21.2% year-on-year. This included garment products worth $4.4 billion, up 5.7% year-on-year. The U.S. was also the biggest buyer of made-in-Vietnam garments.

Garments were Vietnam’s fourth-biggest export earner in Jan-April at $10.42 billion, up 6.7%; behind computers, electronics and spare parts; phones and spare parts; and machines and equipment.