Diamonds from Zimbabwe among five different products placed under withhold release order in United States
Washington DC, USA (PANA) - The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a Withhold Release Order (WRO) on imported rough diamonds from the Marange diamond fields in Zimbabwe suspected of having been produced by forced labour.
The Marange diamond fields are an area of widespread small-scale diamond production in Chiadzwa, a district in the Manicaland Province of Zimbabwe.
The WRO is set to impact diamond production in Zimbabwe as the Marange diamonds are a significant contributor to total diamond production in the country which produced 2.8 million carats last year.
Rough diamonds from Marange were among five different products imported from five different countries to be issued a WRO by the CBP.
“A major part of CBP’s mission is facilitating legitimate trade and travel. CBP’s issuing of these five withhold release orders shows that if we suspect a product is made using forced labor, we’ll take that product off U.S. shelves,” Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan, said in a statement Monday.
Under U.S. law, it is illegal to import goods into the United States that are made wholly or in part by forced labor, which includes convict labor, indentured labor, and forced or indentured child labor.
When sufficient information is available, CBP may detain goods believed to have been produced with forced labor by issuing a WRO.
Importers have the opportunity to either re-export the detained shipments at any time or to submit information to CBP demonstrating that the goods are not in violation.
Reports that diamonds from the Marange diamond fields, in particular, was coming from forced labour first emerged from Human Rights Watch (HRW) in April last year.
“Human Rights Watch has documented how Zimbabwe’s armed forces have coerced children and adults into carrying out forced labor, and tortured and harassed local villagers when they seized control of the diamond fields," HRW had said.
"Armed forces personnel also killed more than 200 people in Chiadzwa, a previously peaceful but impoverished part of Marange, in late October 2008."
The Forced Labour Division within the CBP’s Office of Trade received information that the diamonds were produced from forced labour leading to the WRO.
“CBP is firmly committed to identifying and preventing products made with the use of forced labor from entering the stream of U.S. Commerce," CBP Office of Trade Executive Assistant Commissioner Brenda Smith said.
"The effort put into investigating these producers highlights CBP’s priority attention on this issue. Our agency works tirelessly behind the scenes to investigate and gather information on forced labor in global supply chains.”
Other WROs were issued to "garments produced by Hetian Taida Apparel Co., Ltd. in Xinjiang, China; disposable rubber gloves produced in Malaysia by WRP Asia Pacific Sdn. Bhd; gold mined in artisanal small mines (ASM) in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); and bone black manufactured in Brazil by Bonechar Carvão Ativado Do Brasil Ltda".
These other WROs were also issued on the basis of the products being produced from forced labour.
-0- PANA TZ/RA 1Oct2019
