00:00The United States has blocked imports from Taiwan's biggest bicycle maker, Giant,
00:05accusing the company of using forced labor.
00:08Giant says it's committed to human rights and will fight the order,
00:11while Taiwan's government says it will back the company.
00:14Our reporter Chris Goran has been following the story and comes to us live from Taipei.
00:19Chris, Giant is the biggest bike maker in the world.
00:23What exactly are they being accused of?
00:25Well, yes, you're right, Yvonne. Giant is the world's largest bike maker and a household name in Taiwan.
00:34There are shops which, like the one you see behind me, can be found all over the country.
00:39And Giant says that these new U.S. import restrictions could impact their overall revenue by 4 to 5 percent.
00:46Now, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP,
00:49says that it will detain all bikes, parts, and accessories made in Giant's Taiwan factories
00:55as long as this order is in place.
00:57Now, that excludes products made in Giant's overseas factories.
01:01And CBP says they've identified several indicators of forced labor,
01:06as defined by the International Labor Organization,
01:09including abuse of vulnerability, abusive working and living conditions,
01:14debt bondage, withholding of wages, and excessive overtime.
01:17And they say that Giant profited by imposing such abuse,
01:21resulting in goods produced below market value
01:23and undercutting American businesses by millions of dollars in unjustly earned profits.
01:30Now, at issue here seems to be the conditions for migrant workers employed at Giant's Taiwan factories,
01:36mostly coming from Southeast Asia,
01:39and particular this issue of debt bondage,
01:41where these workers pay thousands of U.S. dollars in upfront fees
01:45for the opportunity to get these jobs in Taiwan.
01:48And between that debt and the fact that their visa is tied to a single job,
01:53many of these workers are essentially bound to their employers until this debt is paid.
01:59And Chris, what has Giant said about these accusations?
02:03Well, both Giant and the Taiwan government have responded to the U.S. move.
02:10In a statement, Giant says that it's committed to upholding human rights and labor protections
02:14and has taken actions, including implementing a zero-recruitment fee policy,
02:19under which all recruitment agency and government-related fees
02:22for newly hired migrant workers will be paid by the company.
02:26And they also say that last year they completed upgrades for employee housing.
02:31Now, in further statements to Taiwan Plus,
02:34Giant says that CBP has never conducted any on-site investigations of their Taiwan factories
02:38and has never contacted the company for interviews related to this issue
02:43and that they're very surprised by the order.
02:46Meanwhile, Taiwan's economy ministry has said that it will try to help the company restore its reputation
02:52and help it resolve any forced labor issues it might be involved in.
02:56Now, on the U.S. side, I spoke to an American trade lawyer earlier today,
03:00and he told me it's quite common that the evidence in these forced labor findings is not made public
03:07and that it's actually on the companies themselves to demonstrate what they've done to improve.
03:13If you look at CBP's guidelines and how they want companies to respond,
03:17they basically want companies to go do the legwork of investigating their own sort of labor situation
03:25and then prove up to CBP and say, look, we've looked at everything.
03:29We have had outside auditors, third-party auditors, unannounced site visits, all the whole nine yards.
03:36Now, Yvonne, while these orders have been placed against individual Taiwanese boats before,
03:42currently Giant is the only Taiwanese company to have one of these orders placed against them.
03:47But given the ongoing trade tensions and trade talks between the U.S. and Taiwan,
03:52many here may be wondering if it will be the last.
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