Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930: Forced Labor Import Prohibition Explained

Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 bans goods made with forced labor from entering the United States. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) enforces it by holding shipments at the border, and no fee or duty will get them released.

For decades, a loophole kept the ban from being used much. Since Congress closed it in 2016, enforcement has grown steadily and now reaches producers worldwide. In fiscal year 2026 alone, CBP issued eight new orders against specific producers, including a copper producer in Serbia. Because the ban covers any input made with forced labor, a company can face a detention even when its direct suppliers are sound.

Below, we explain what the ban covers, how CBP enforces it, and what it means for importers and their supplier due diligence.

What Is Section 307?

Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 is the U.S. ban on importing goods made with forced labor. It’s codified at 19 U.S.C. 1307, and a 2000 amendment confirmed that it covers forced and indentured child labor.

Section 307 is a ban, not a duty. Goods within its scope can’t enter any U.S. port, and no payment changes that. An importer has three options: prove the goods fall outside the ban, export them, or destroy them.

For most of its history, a loophole kept the ban from doing much. Under a consumptive demand exception, it didn’t apply when U.S. producers couldn’t meet domestic demand for a product. Since most targeted goods weren’t made in the U.S. at all, the exception exempted most of the imports the ban was meant to stop. Congress removed it on February 24, 2016, through Section 910 of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. According to the Congressional Research Service, CBP has blocked more products since 2016 than in it had in the previous 85 years.

Section 307 doesn’t require any reporting. There’s no annual filing or due diligence plan to submit. CBP acts at the port instead, based on evidence about how the goods were made.

What Does Section 307 Prohibit?

Section 307 bans goods that are mined, produced, or manufactured, wholly or in part, with any of three types of labor:

• Convict labor: work done by prisoners
• Forced labor: work someone is made to do under threat of a penalty, defined in the next section
• Indentured labor under penal sanctions: work tied to a contract the worker can be punished for leaving

The words “wholly or in part” make Section 307 a supply chain issue, not just a supplier issue. One input made with prohibited labor, at any tier, brings the finished product under the ban. It doesn’t matter where final assembly happened or how small the input’s share of the product’s value is. That’s why an importer with well-run direct suppliers can still end up with goods that can’t enter. Our guide to Section 307 forced labor covers the ban’s scope in more detail.

What Is Forced Labor Under Section 307?

Section 307 defines forced labor as work someone is made to do under threat of a penalty and hasn’t freely agreed to. The definition mirrors the International Labour Organization (ILO) Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), so U.S. customs law applies an international standard. 

In its June 2026 operational guidance for importers, CBP breaks the definition into three elements. All three must be present.

Element	What CBP states it means
Work or service	Labor used, wholly or in part, to mine, produce, or manufacture goods. It excludes packaging, inspecting, labeling, and similar work that is not part of material production
Menace of any penalty	A wide range of penalties or threatened penalties used to compel someone to work, including threats of violence, retention of identity documents, confinement, or nonpayment of wages
Involuntariness	The free and informed consent of a worker to take a job, and the freedom to leave at any time. It is absent where a recruiter or employer makes false promises that cause a worker to accept an offer they would otherwise have declined

To test for those elements, CBP’s Forced Labor Division uses the ILO’s 11 indicators of forced labor:

• Abuse of vulnerability
• Deception
• Restriction of movement
• Isolation
• Physical and sexual violence
• Intimidation and threats
• Retention of identity documents
• Withholding of wages
• Debt bondage
• Abusive working and living conditions
• Excessive overtime

Who Enforces Section 307?

CBP enforces Section 307. Within CBP, the Forced Labor Division in the Office of Trade investigates allegations, and port directors detain shipments at ports of entry. CBP’s enforcement rules are in 19 CFR 12.42 to 12.45.

The Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force coordinates enforcement across federal agencies. The Secretary of Homeland Security chairs it, and it also maintains the UFLPA Entity List, covered below. Congress created the task force in January 2020, in the law implementing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Anyone can report suspected forced labor to CBP, not only government officials. An allegation must explain the reasons for the suspicion, describe the goods in detail or include a sample, and give whatever facts are available about how the goods were made. Because any outside party can trigger an investigation, importers should monitor CBP’s published orders for entities in their supply chains.

Section 307 and Withhold Release Orders

A withhold release order tells port directors to hold goods from a specific producer, product, or facility. CBP issues one when it has reasonable suspicion that the goods were made with prohibited labor.

The evidence bar is relatively low. CBP needs information that reasonably, but not conclusively, points to forced labor. An order isn’t a ruling that a violation happened. It lets CBP stop the goods first, and the importer responds after they’re detained.

CBP doesn’t publish withhold release orders in the Federal Register. Its withhold release orders and Findings dashboard is the official record, and it changes often as CBP issues, modifies, and revokes orders. As of October 21, 2026, 60 orders were active. A producer under an order can ask CBP to modify or revoke it by showing it has fixed the forced labor conditions.

Findings, and How They Differ From a Withhold Release Order

A Finding is CBP’s formal determination that specific goods were made with prohibited labor. It requires probable cause, a higher standard than reasonable suspicion, to believe that specific goods were made with prohibited labor. As of October 21, 2026, nine Findings were active.

A Finding changes three things:

• CBP seizes the goods instead of detaining them. CBP seizes under 19 U.S.C. 1595a and 19 CFR 12.44(b), and forfeiture proceedings follow unless the importer proves the goods weren’t made with forced labor.
• CBP must publish it. Findings appear in the Customs Bulletin and the Federal Register, while withhold release orders don’t.
• The importer can’t export the goods. Under a withhold release order, export remains an option.

Because export is off the table, an importer holding goods from an entity under a Finding should contact customs counsel right away. Our guide to Section 307 Findings covers seizure, petitions, and forfeiture in more detail.

How Section 307 Enforcement Works

Enforcement follows four steps:

1. Allegation and investigation. A CBP officer or anyone outside the agency reports a reasonable belief that banned goods are being imported, and CBP investigates.
2. Order. If the evidence meets the reasonable suspicion bar, CBP issues a withhold release order, and port directors start holding matching shipments.
3. Detention. CBP holds the shipment and issues a Notice of Detention (CBP Form 6051D). The importer then has three months from the date of importation to export the goods, destroy them, or request an admissibility review. In that review, the importer submits documents asking CBP to release the goods.
4. Outcome. If the review succeeds, CBP releases the goods. If it fails, CBP excludes them, meaning they’re refused entry and must be exported or destroyed. Where a Finding applies, CBP seizes the goods instead, and they can be forfeited to the government.

A detention costs more than just the delay. The importer pays storage for the entire review, until CBP issues its final decision. CBP may also require a single-transaction bond worth three times the value of the detained goods. Since the three-month clock starts at importation, importers should have supply chain tracing records ready before any shipment is detained. Our guide to Section 307 compliance explains how to respond to a detention.

Section 307 vs. Other U.S. Forced-Labor Import Requirements

Section 307 is the only U.S. law that bans goods made with forced labor. The UFLPA and a North Korea provision in the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) build on it by presuming certain goods violate Section 307. The Section 301 forced labor tariffs work differently. Under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) charges duties based on a country’s laws, and those duties don’t affect whether goods can enter.

Instrument	Citation	What it is
Section 307	19 U.S.C. 1307	The ban itself. Applies to any country, any product, and any form of convict, forced, or indentured labor
UFLPA	Pub. L. 117-78, December 23, 2021	A rebuttable presumption that certain goods breach Section 307, defined by geography and by entity
CAATSA North Korea provision	22 U.S.C. 9241a, added August 2, 2017	A rebuttable presumption that goods made wholly or in part by the labor of North Korean nationals or citizens are barred under Section 307, displaced only by clear and convincing evidence
Section 301 forced labor duties	Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, duties applying from July 24, 2026 (91 FR 47318)	Not a ban. Additional duties of 10% or 12.5% on goods from 60 economies. USTR found that 54 of them had no ban on forced labor imports, and six were not enforcing the bans they had

A shipment can clear Section 307 and still owe the Section 301 duty, because that duty depends on the country of origin, not on how the goods were made. Clearing one measure doesn’t clear the others, so importers should check their exposure to each separately. Our guide to Section 301 forced labor tariffs covers those duties.

Section 307 and the UFLPA

The UFLPA took effect on June 21, 2022. It presumes that goods made wholly or in part in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, or by an entity on the UFLPA Entity List, were made with forced labor.

The UFLPA doesn’t create a new ban, but it changes who has to prove what. Under Section 307 alone, CBP must have evidence before it holds goods. Under the UFLPA, the presumption applies automatically at entry, and the importer has to provide evidence to dispute it. To do that, the importer must fully comply with CBP’s guidance, answer every CBP request, and show by clear and convincing evidence that no forced labor was involved.

The response windows also differ. A detention under a withhold release order allows three months. A UFLPA detention allows 30 days, extendable only if CBP receives the request before the 30 days expire.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) publishes the UFLPA Entity List, and the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force maintains it. It has four sub-lists, covering producers, entities that move workers out of Xinjiang, exporters, and facilities that source through government labor programs. An entity can appear on more than one, and each listing has its own effective date. The most recent additions took effect on August 3, 2026. Importers sourcing from China should screen suppliers against the list before shipping, because the presumption applies as soon as goods arrive.

What Section 307 Means for Importers and Supply Chains

Section 307 risk depends on how far upstream a company can see. Because the ban reaches any input made with forced labor, a company with tranparent, compliant direct suppliers but no visibility past them still carries the risk. It just can’t see it.

Importers already owe CBP reasonable care in the information they file, and CBP says that duty covers forced labor. An importer must be able to show that its goods contain no materials made with forced labor. CBP’s operational guidance organizes the evidence it expects around four questions:

• Who was involved at each stage of the supply chain, and how are they connected?
• Where did in-house manufacturing, sub-assembly, and outsourced production take place?
• How were the goods sourced, made, or processed in third countries?
• What were the goods made from, from raw material to finished product?

The answers to those questions are the core of an admissibility review. The review also requires a certificate of origin under 19 CFR 12.43(a), and a standard one won’t do. It must follow the format the regulation sets out and come from the exporter or the last manufacturing step. The importer must add its own detailed statement, too, rather than relying on the seller’s.

Several of the ILO indicators are hard to catch with paperwork. Deception in recruitment, debt bondage, confiscated identity documents, withheld wages, and restricted movement are conditions workers experience. They rarely show up in policies, certificates, or announced site visits, so supplier assessments need to test for them directly. EcoVadis examines that gap in Forced to Act.

Supplier due diligence and product traceability do different jobs, and importers need both. A documented record of supplier risk mapping and assessment and engagement helps a company spot and manage risk before CBP acts. It doesn’t replace the certificates of origin, bills of lading, payment records, and raw material tracing that CBP asks for once a shipment is detained.

FAQs

Is Section 307 the same as 19 U.S.C. 1307?
Yes. Section 307 is the provision’s number in the Tariff Act of 1930, and 19 U.S.C. 1307 is where it appears in the United States Code. Both refer to the same law.

When did Section 307 start being enforced?
Effectively, in 2016. Until February 24, 2016, a consumptive demand exception meant the ban didn’t apply when U.S. production couldn’t meet domestic demand. Congress removed that exception, and enforcement rose sharply. .

Does Section 307 apply only to goods from China?
No. Section 307 applies to goods from any foreign country. Its association with China comes from the volume of UFLPA enforcement, not from the scope of Section 307. Recent orders have reached producers far beyond China, including a Serbian copper producer in June 2026.

What is the difference between a withhold release order and a Finding?
The main difference between a withhold release order and a Finding is the standard of proof, and what CBP can do as a result. An order requires reasonable suspicion and lets CBP detain goods, which the importer can still export. A Finding requires probable cause and lets CBP seize goods, which the importer can’t export.

Can goods detained under Section 307 be re-exported?
It depends. Under a withhold release order, goods detained under Section 307 can be re-exported at any time before seizure or abandonment. However, if a Finding applies, the goods are seized and cannot be re-exported.

Does Section 307 apply to services or to goods made in the United States?
No. Section 307 applies only to imported goods. Services fall outside it, and U.S. labor law covers domestic production.

Sources last verified: Checked against CBP, DHS, the ILO, and the Federal Register on October 21, 2026.