U.S. Ramps Up Forced Labor Enforcement as De Minimis Deadline Looms

In the midst of headlines focused on escalating trade tensions and tariffs imposed on non-U.S. goods, the United States’ continued commitment to enforcing its forced labor ban has largely gone overlooked. Yet U.S. Custom and Border Protection’s dashboard of detention statistics reflects a significant increase in the number of goods detained in 2025 YTD compared to 2024, with even greater increases to come as the de minimis deadline approaches. 

Increase in volume of shipments detained year to date 

So far this year approximately $97M worth of shipments were detained by CBP under the forced labor ban, with a sharp uptick in Q2. In May, $2.9M worth of shipments were detained, yet in June the value of shipments detained increased nearly six-fold to over $16.8M. 

While the value of goods detained to date is far less than the value detained during the equivalent time period in 2024, the number of shipments detained to date (6,636) has already exceeded 2024 in its entirety (4,598). 

What this means

The sharp uptick in detentions between May and June reflect an increase in the variety of products being targeted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, with automotive and aerospace representing the majority of shipments detained this year to date. Consumer products and mass merchandising also represent a new category of products experiencing detentions in 2025. This product category was not seeing any meaningful volume of shipments detained in 2024 and is therefore not represented in the 2024 statistics. After automotive and consumer products, the following product categories represent the remaining shipments detained this year to date: apparel, footwear and textiles, electronics, agriculture and prepared products, industrial and manufacturing materials, pharmaceuticals, health and chemicals, base metals and machinery. 

The discrepancy between the higher volume of shipments detained YTD and the lower value of those detained products compared to the prior year is indicative of CBP’s efforts to detain products of a lesser value than previous years. In 2022 and 2023 - the earliest year that detentions were being tracked - a significant percentage of detained shipments contained high value goods such as solar panels. As the focus of the forced labor ban has broadened, less valuable goods are being detained in larger quantities. 

This higher volume of detentions does not account for the forthcoming closure of the de minimis loophole - set to go into effect on August 29th. Once this closure goes into effect and shipments valued below $800 are subject to full CBP scrutiny, we are likely to see a significant increase in both the total volume and value of shipments detained across 2025. On average, CBP processes over 4 million de minimis shipments into the U.S per day, far greater than the number of shipments being detained on a daily basis under the current rules

What’s next

Forced labor enforcement continues to be a high priority for CBP and FLETF. Products across industries have drawn the attention of customs authorities, and the U.S. is on track to far exceed the total number of shipments detained this year vs last year. 

Many direct-to-consumer brands who could previously disregard the U.S. forced labor ban will be forced to rapidly scale up supply chain due diligence measures, lest they face costly detentions, seizures, and reputational damage. 

Want to learn how Sourcemap helps companies comply with U.S. forced labor due diligence requirements? Reach out to our team of experts today.