美國推動禁止強迫或強制勞動努力之研究

Efforts by the United States to Eliminate Forced or Compulsory Labor

近年來，強迫或強制勞動之禁絕已成為具普世價值之基本勞動人權，美國身為全球最強盛國家及經濟體，自不能置身事外。事實上，在過去40多年來，它透過單方之制定國內法及公布相關報告、雙邊之與重要經貿夥伴簽訂自由貿易協定，以及參與多邊區域經濟整合之契機，都會要求其他國家遵循國際勞工組織所通過之第29號強迫勞動公約及第105號禁止強迫勞動公約，同時也藉由全球供應鏈之運作，希望更能深化這方面之努力，並與禁止童工及打擊人口販運等議題相聯結，成為經濟全球化及區域整合過程中不可忽視之一環。本文即是要檢視該國在過去40多年來在這方面之努力情形，並探討臺灣在美國之壓力下，應如何從事進一步相關之改革，而得以尊重勞動人權「模範生」之身分，在新的世界貿易秩序中，扮演更為積極正面之角色。

The elimination of forced or compulsory labor has become one of the fundamental labor rights enjoyed by all workers globally in recent years. As the most powerful country and economy in the world, the United States has played an important role in this endeavor. In the past 40 years, it has promulgated federal legislation and issued various country reports unilaterally to enforce this core international labor standard. It has also bilaterally negotiated numerous free trade agreements (FTAs) with important partners to implement this fundamental right through worker rights provisions in these agreements. Most importantly, the US has also utilized various measures multilaterally to promote rights through economic globalization, regional integration and global supply chains. In this process, the issues of child labor and illegal trafficking of persons have also been included. This paper reviews the efforts made by the US in eliminating forced or compulsory labor in the past four decades. It also examines whether Taiwan can proceed to make further related reforms in order to become a role model in this area and play a more positive role in a new global trade order.
In addition to introductory and concluding remarks, this paper is divided into five sections. Section Two describes the prevalence and seriousness of forced or compulsory labor problem globally, various negative impacts it has created and how the United Nations and other international organizations have endeavored to eliminate exploitative labor. Section Three details how the United States utilizes federal legislation passed by Congress to unilaterally resolve forced or compulsory labor problems domestically and internationally. Section Four analyzes how the United States cooperates multilaterally with the World Trade Organization (WTO), Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) and other institutions to forbid forced or compulsory labor. Section Five discusses how the Trump administration has negotiated with South Korea in 2018 to promote fundamental worker rights (including elimination of forced or compulsory labor) though bilateral free trade agreement. Finally, in Section Six, this paper uses two stages to describe how the U.S. has criticized Taiwan’s performance in eliminating forced and compulsory labor in the past four decades. While exploitative labor is not prevalent in Taiwan, dealing with problems arising from mistreatment of foreign labor, especially those employed as fishermen, domestic household workers, caregivers, and undocumented workers still require major reform efforts.