Kingsfield · Research · International Trade & Sanctions

Are goods made with forced labor barred from entry into the United States?

Published 2026-06-23 · U.S. federal law

19 U.S.C. § 1307 prohibits the importation of merchandise that is mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part by forced labor, including convict labor and indentured labor.

The answer

The import bar

19 U.S.C. § 1307 provides that goods mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in any foreign country by convict labor, forced labor, or indentured labor under penal sanctions are not entitled to entry at any United States port and are prohibited from importation.

Scope of forced labor

The statute defines forced labor to mean work or service exacted under the menace of penalty and for which the worker does not offer himself voluntarily, which is the basis for Customs withhold-release orders against suspect supply chains.

The judged input

What the AI drafted

Submitted to the judge

This is an excerpt from a draft export-controls advisory memo — the kind of work product a lawyer generates with a legal-AI drafting tool, then has to stand behind. Kingsfield does not write it; it rules on the citations the model put in it. This draft cites two authorities; one of them is wrong.

AI draft excerpt — export-controls advisory memo

The Company should treat its overseas cotton sourcing as a material admissibility risk. Under 19 U.S.C. § 1307, merchandise produced wholly or in part by forced, convict, or indentured labor is prohibited from importation and is not entitled to entry at any United States port. A common misconception is that the cure is a labeling fix governed by 19 U.S.C. § 1304. We advise commissioning a supply-chain trace before the next purchase order.

The judge ruled on every citation as the draft used it — it accepted 19 U.S.C. § 1307 and rejected 19 U.S.C. § 1304. Here is why.

The verdict

How Kingsfield ruled

Ruled 2026-06-23

Each citation in the draft above was submitted to the Kingsfield judge and ruled against the primary-law corpus — Accept, Reject, or Inconclusive, per citation. These are live verdicts, not editorial. Each card shows the claim the draft made and the verbatim authority the verdict was rendered against.

Accept19 U.S.C. § 1307

The draft claimed: Merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in a foreign country by convict labor, forced labor, or indentured labor is prohibited from importation and not entitled to entry at any United States port.

“§ 1307. Convict-made goods; importation prohibited All goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in any foreign country by convict labor or/and forced labor or/and indentured labor under penal sanctions shall not be entitled to entry at any of the ports of the United States, and the importa”

Cite found; proposition supported by the cited text.

Reject19 U.S.C. § 1304

The draft claimed: Section 1304 is the statute prohibiting importation of goods made with forced labor and provides the cure through proper labeling.

Cite found, but the cited text does not support the claim. 19 U.S.C. 1304 governs marking of imported articles to indicate country of origin to the ultimate purchaser; the forced-labor import prohibition is at 19 U.S.C. 1307. Regenerate with the correct authority.

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This page is legal information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The draft shown is an illustration of a typical AI answer; verdicts reflect the cited authority in the Kingsfield corpus as of the ruling date shown above.