The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (TFTEA) was the first law since the Department of Homeland Security's inception in 2003 to grant U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) comprehensive authority to ensure a fair and competitive trade environment.
The passage of TFTEA strengthened CBP’s enforcement authority to prohibit goods made with forced labor from entering the United States by repealing the “consumptive demand clause,” a relic of the of the earliest legal authority in the country against forced labor, which allowed the entry of products made with forced labor into the United States when manufacturers could not meet the demand for a specific commodity domestically. TFTEA also led to the establishment, in 2018, of a dedicated team within CBP’s Office of Trade to investigate and enforce forced labor violations. It also ushered in a new era of cooperative engagement among CBP's multi-disciplinary teams of international trade specialists, auditors, import specialists, attachés, and CBP officers. As a result of TFTEA and CBP’s initiative, the agency has developed a robust forced labor enforcement program and has become a global leader in the fight against forced labor, setting a standard of practice for customs authorities and governments around the world.
