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The Petition to Exclude Coffee Products Produced with Forced Labor urges U.S. Customs and Border Protection to ban imports of Brazilian coffee supplied to Starbucks, Nestlé, JDE, Dunkin’, Illy, and McDonald’s under Section 307 of the Tariff Act. It presents extensive evidence from Brazilian government inspection reports, NGOs, and investigative journalism showing widespread forced and child labour on coffee farms, particularly in Minas Gerais.
Workers face debt bondage, abusive living conditions, pesticide exposure, excessive hours, withheld wages, and trafficking by recruiters known as gatos. Many farms are linked to Cooxupé, Brazil’s largest coffee cooperative and Starbucks’s main supplier. Coffee from these farms has entered U.S. supply chains despite companies’ ethical sourcing claims.
The petition highlights systemic failures: informal contracts, intimidation, gender inequality, child exploitation, and violence against labour inspectors and human rights defenders. It also documents repeat abuses at Starbucks-certified farms and Cooxupé members, demonstrating persistent violations despite global certifications and corporate commitments.
Petitioners request a Withhold Release Order (WRO) blocking imports of all Brazilian coffee tied to forced labour and outline conditions for lifting such an order. These include supply chain traceability, public transparency, fair contracts, grievance mechanisms, living wages, safe pesticide practices, and protection of workers’ rights and associations.
Overall, the filing argues that voluntary corporate codes have failed, and only binding enforcement can end forced labour in Brazil’s coffee sector and prevent tainted products from entering U.S. markets.
