The Child Labor Deterrence Act was created by Senator Tom Harkin (Democrat - Iowa), and was first proposed in the United States Congress in 1992, with subsequent propositions in 1993, 1995, 1997 and 1999.
According to Harkin's website, "This bill would prohibit the importation of products that have been produced by child labor, and included civil and criminal penalties for violators.
According to Harkin, "I was able to amend the Trade Act of 2000 to ensure that the statute also applied to goods made with forced or indentured child labor."
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics Labor Force Survey estimated that there were about 5.7 million 10- to 14-year-old Bangladeshi children engaged in child labour.
[5] The act which banned "importation to the United States of products which are manufactured or mined in whole or in part by children" would have resulted in the loss of lucrative American contracts.