This week, President Obama signed the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act, which in part closes an 86-year-old loophole that now bans the importation of food and other goods produced by slave labor.
According to the Associated Press, the new legislation eliminates existing language contained in the Tariff Act of 1930. While the act allowed for the seizure of goods where forced labor was suspected, it contained a provision dubbed “consumptive demand” which allowed any good to be imported no matter how it was soured or produced if there was not enough domestic supply to meet demand.