Prohibition of Acquisition of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor

Executive Order 13126 of June 12, 1999

Prohibition of Acquisition of Products Produced
by Forced or Indentured Child Labor

By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, and in order to continue the executive
branch's commitment to fighting abusive child labor
practices, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section. 1. Policy. It shall be the policy of the
United States Government, consistent with the Tariff
Act of 1930, 19 U.S.C. 1307, the Fair Labor Standards
Act, 29 U.S.C. 201 et. seq., and the Walsh-Healey
Public Contracts Act, 41 U.S.C. 35 et seq., that
executive agencies shall take appropriate actions to
enforce the laws prohibiting the manufacture or
importation of goods, wares, articles, and merchandise
mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part by
forced or indentured child labor.

Sec. 2. Publication of List. Within 120 days after the
date of this order, the Department of Labor, in
consultation and cooperation with the Department of the
Treasury and the Department of State, shall publish in
the Federal Register a list of products, identified by
their country of origin, that those Departments have a
reasonable basis to believe might have been mined,
produced, or manufactured by forced or indentured child
labor. The Department of Labor may conduct hearings to
assist in the identification of those products.

Sec. 3. Procurement Regulations. Within 120 days after
the date of this order, the Federal Acquisition
Regulatory Council shall issue proposed rules to
implement the following:

    (a) Required Solicitation Provisions. Each
solicitation of offers for a contract for the
procurement of a product included on the list published
under section 2 of this order shall include the
following provisions:
    (1) A provision that requires the contractor to
certify to the contracting officer that the contractor
or, in the case of an incorporated contractor, a
responsible official of the contractor has made a good
faith effort to determine whether forced or indentured
child labor 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 labor; and
    (2) A provision that obligates the contractor to
cooperate fully in providing reasonable access to the
contractor's records, documents, persons, or premises
if reasonably requested by authorized officials of the
contracting agency, the Department of the Treasury, or
the Department of Justice, for the purpose of
determining whether forced or indentured child labor
was used to mine, produce, or manufacture any product
furnished under the contract.
    (b) Investigations. Whenever a contracting officer
of an executive agency has reason to believe that
forced or indentured child labor was used to mine,
produce, or manufacture a product furnished pursuant to
a contract subject to the requirements of subsection
3(a) of this order, the head of the executive agency
shall refer the matter for investigation to the
Inspector General of the executive agency and, as the
head of the executive agency or the Inspector General
determines appropriate, to the Attorney General and the
Secretary of the Treasury.

    (c) Remedies.
    (1) The head of an executive agency may impose
remedies as provided in this subsection in the case of
a contractor under a contract of the executive agency
if the head of the executive agency finds that the
contractor:

(i)    Has furnished under the contract products that have been mined, produced, or manufactured by forced or
indentured child labor or uses forced or indentured child labor in the mining, production, or
manufacturing operations of the contractor;
(i    Has submitted a false certification under subsection 3(a)(1) of this order; or
i)
(i    Has failed to cooperate in accordance with the obligation imposed pursuant to subsection 3(a)(2) of this
ii   order.
)

    (2) The head of an executive agency, in his or her
sole discretion, may terminate a contract on the basis
of any finding described in subsection 3(c)(1) of this
order for any contract entered into after the date the
regulation called for in section 3 of this order is
published in final.
    (3) The head of an executive agency may debar or
suspend a contractor from eligibility for Federal
contracts on the basis of a finding that the contractor
has engaged in an act described in subsection 3(c)(1)
of this order. The provision for debarment may not
exceed 3 years.
    (4) The Administrator of General Services shall
include on the List of Parties Excluded from Federal
Procurement and Nonprocurement Programs (maintained by
the Administrator as described in the Federal
Acquisition Regulation) each party that is debarred,
suspended, proposed for debarment or suspension, or
declared ineligible by the head of an agency on the
basis that the person has engaged in an act described
in subsection 3(c)(1) of this order.
    (5) This section shall not be construed to limit
the use of other remedies available to the head of an
executive agency or any other official of the Federal
Government on the basis of a finding described in
subsection 3(c)(1) of this order.

Sec. 4. Report. Within 2 years after implementation of
any final rule under this order, the Administrator of
General Services, with the assistance of other
executive agencies, shall submit to the Office of
Management and Budget a report on the actions taken
pursuant to this order.

Sec. 5. Scope. (a) Any proposed rules issued pursuant
to section 3 of this order shall apply only to
acquisitions for a total amount in excess of the micro-
purchase threshold as defined in section 32(f) of the
Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C.
428(f)).

    (b) This order does not apply to a contract that is
for the procurement of any product, or any article,
material, or supply contained in a product that is
mined, produced, or manufactured in any foreign country
if:

(1)   the foreign country is a party to the Agreement on Government Procurement annexed to the WTO Agreement or
a party to the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”); and
(2)   the contract is of a value that is equal to or greater than the United States threshold specified in the
Agreement on Government Procurement annexed to the WTO Agreement or NAFTA, whichever is applicable.

Sec. 6. Definitions. (a) “Executive agency” and
“agency” have the meaning given to “executive
agency” in section 4(1) of the Office of Federal
Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 403(1)).

    (b) “WTO Agreement” means the Agreement
Establishing the World Trade Organization, entered into
on April 15, 1994.
    (c) “Forced or indentured child labor” means all
work or service (1) exacted from any person under the
age of 18 under the menace of any penalty for its
nonperformance and for which the worker does not offer
himself voluntarily; or (2) performed by any person
under the age of 18 pursuant to a contract the
enforcement of which can be accomplished by process or
penalties.

Sec. 7. Judicial Review. This order is intended only to
improve the internal management of the executive branch
and does not create any rights or benefits, substantive
or procedural, enforceable by law by a party against
the United States, its agencies, its officers, or any
other person.

    (Presidential Sig.)

THE WHITE HOUSE,

    June 12, 1999.