Following the decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to impose a 12.5% tariff on imports from the Dominican Republic, judging the country’s efforts to fight forced labor as insufficient, the Dominican government has implemented a series of administrative measures to prevent goods, products, and merchandise made, extracted, processed, or produced, in whole or in part, by this practice from entering its territory.
Following the decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to impose a 12.5% tariff on imports from the Dominican Republic, citing the country’s insufficient efforts to combat forced labor, the Dominican government implemented a series of administrative measures aimed at preventing goods, products, and merchandise made, extracted, processed, or produced, in whole or in part, by this practice from entering its territory.
This measure is included in Decree 502-26, published on the night of Thursday, July 23, which authorizes the General Directorate of Customs (DGA) to enforce the aforementioned ban.
Which products could be blocked?
The decree doesn’t provide a specific list of products. However, the U.S. Department of Labor says it has reason to believe that raw sugar, refined sugar, molasses, rum, bagasse, and furfural produced in the Dominican Republic are made using inputs from forced labor, including sugarcane grown in the country.
“Dominican sugarcane produced by forced labor was added to the ILAB list of goods produced by child labor or forced labor in 2009. Numerous reports indicate that forced labor is widespread throughout the Dominican sugar sector, including on plantations owned by private companies, state entities, and small independent producers (colonos),” the organization’s website says.He adds that sugarcane workers in this Caribbean country, especially those of Haitian origin, work and live under conditions of forced labor.
“Sugarcane is used in the Dominican Republic to make various sugar-based products. The United States imports almost all of the raw sugar and most of the molasses exported from the Dominican Republic, while the European Union imports all of the furfural produced. In 2023, the United States imported over $131 million worth of raw sugar from the Dominican Republic.
Research suggests that other sugarcane-derived products, such as beverages, alcoholic drinks, candies, baked goods, processed foods, animal feed, paper, pulp, building materials, biofuels, industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and medicinal alcohol, could be made from raw materials obtained through forced labor,” says the U.S. Department of Labor.
Customs can hold goods.
The regulations also allow the General Directorate of Customs to take precautionary measures during the administrative investigation.
These measures include:
*Suspending customs clearance.
*Temporarily holding the goods.
*Any other measure necessary to prevent the product from entering the Dominican market while it is determined whether it violates regulations.
“The administrative measures adopted in accordance with the current legal system, following the procedure laid out in this decree, will apply to goods, products, and items that, on the date of the corresponding administrative decision, have set sail, are in a port, or are subject to a customs regime or operation before their import or final entry into the national territory,” the text specifies.
Register of prohibited goods
The decree also orders the creation of an administrative register for products whose import has been banned.
“The General Directorate of Customs will keep an administrative register of goods, products, and items whose import has been prohibited by a final administrative decision made in accordance with this decree,” the document states.This register will include information such as the producer, manufacturer, supplier, production facility, country or region of origin, as well as other parts of the supply chain that help identify where the goods come from and justify the administrative decision.
“Including these elements is meant to define the scope of the measure and does not, by itself, imply a ban on other goods, operations, or supply sources for which no determination has been made under this decree,” the text explains.
It is also required that the register be updated, if necessary, following new administrative decisions, changes or repeals of existing decisions, or any other circumstances affecting its content.What is forced labor?
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), forced labor is work that a person performs involuntarily and under coercion or threat.
The ILO points out that these situations can occur through violence, intimidation, threats, withholding identity documents, or through manipulated debts. The three key elements of forced labor
According to the ILO Convention on Forced Labour of 1930, three elements must be present for labor to be considered forced:
Work or service: any work carried out as part of an economic activity, including the informal economy.
Threat of punishment: this can range from physical violence to sanctions, including intimidation or threats.Lack of consent: this happens when someone doesn’t freely accept a job or can’t leave it at will.
The ILO warns that forced labor can affect both adults and children and occur in various economic sectors, such as domestic work, agriculture, construction, manufacturing, sexual exploitation, or forced begging.
It also notes that not all jobs with poor working conditions count as forced labor.
The countries affected by the measure taken by President Trump’s administration
This measure was announced by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), led by Jamieson Greer, and follows investigations carried out by this agency in March under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act, to determine whether the policies and practices of these countries regarding the ban on importing goods produced by forced labor harm American workers and businesses.
It aims to replace the temporary 10% global tariff imposed by President Donald Trump, which expires this Friday morning, and marks a new stage in the trade war carried out by his administration since April 2025.
The new tariffs impose an additional 10% on imports from 17 economies and 12.5% on imports from other countries, while for some trading partners, the rates vary depending on the product.In Latin America, the measure affects Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, which will face an additional 10% tariff, while Costa Rica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic will be subject to a 12.5% tariff.
The Trump administration is imposing a combined 10% tariff on the 27 economies of the European Union.
Other affected economies include India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, Canada, and the United Kingdom, although the applicable rates vary in some cases depending on the origin and type of imported product.
China, which applies higher and specific tariffs, is not on the new list.
