Commercial Information Circulars

24-hour hotline : 23 922 922

e-mail address : enquiry@tid.gov.hk

Ref : EIC 111/1/5/1

2 June 2011

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 318/2011

US : Final Determination Revising the List of Products requiring Federal Contractor Certification as to Forced/Indentured Child Labour pursuant to Executive Order 13126

Further to Commercial Information Circular No. 598/2010 on the US Department of Labour (DoL)'s initial determination proposing to revise the "List of Products requiring Federal Contractor Certification as to Forced/Indentured Child Labour" pursuant to Executive Order No. 13126 "Prohibition of Acquisition of Products produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labour" (EO 13126), the DoL published in the Federal Register of 31 May 2011 a notice to announce the final determination to incorporate the proposed revisions into the List without change. The FR notice is available at:
 http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-05-31/pdf/2011-13342.pdf.

DETAILS

2. The EO 13126, published in the FR on 16 June 1999, was the US policy that the executive agencies must take appropriate actions to enforce the laws prohibiting the manufacture or importation of good, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced or manufactured wholly or in part by forced or indentured child labour. Pursuant to the EO 13126, the DoL published in January 2001 the first "List of Products requiring Federal Contractor Certification as to Forced/Indentured Child Labour" (the List) and "Procedural Guidelines for Maintenance of the List of Products Requiring Federal Contractor Certification as to Forced or Indentured Child Labour" (Procedural Guidelines). The List was last updated on 20 July 2010 and the DoL published the initial determination to revise the List on 16 December 2010.

3. In accordance with the Procedural Guidelines, and based on recent, credible, and appropriately corroborated information from various sources, the DoL, the US Department of State, and the US Department of Homeland Security have concluded to revise the List as proposed in the initial determination by:

1. adding hand-woven textiles originated from Ethiopia, and

2. removing charcoal originated from Brazil.

4. Pursuant to EO 13126, the updated List and the final rule published by the US Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council in January 2001, Federal contractors who supply products that appear on the List under procurement by the US Government must certify, among other things, to the contracting officer that they have made a good faith effort to determine whether forced or indentured child labour was used to mine, produce or manufacture any product furnished under the contract and that, on the basis of those efforts, the contractor is unaware of any such use of child labour.

5. The implementation details of EO 13126 and the latest developments are available at: http://www.dol.gov/ilab/regs/eo13126/main.htm.

ENQUIRIES

6.For enquiries concerning this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5682.

Yours faithfully,


 

(Miss Carmen CHAN)
for Director-General of Trade and Industry