Trump Lifts Sugar Ban Despite “Slave Labor,” Benefiting Donor
NEWS & RESEARCH
Just weeks into his second term, President Trump rescinded an import ban that had blocked US entry of products from Central Romana—a major Dominican sugar producer (brands include Domino Sugar) accused of gross human rights and labor violations. The company's owner, José "Pepe" Fanjul, had donated over $1 million directly to Trump’s campaign in 2024 and hosted a $50 million fundraiser for him that year. The administration lifted the ban quietly, without a press statement. One current official admitted the circumstances were "unusual": Such orders are supposed to remain in effect until US Customs can verify—after speaking with workers and worker-led organizations—that the supply chain is free of forced labor. An investigative report published in 2026 by Corporate Accountability Lab shows conditions at Central Romana are almost as atrocious as they were when the ban was imposed in 2022, and six Dominican civil society organizations, along with more than 30 human and labor rights groups worldwide, have written letters saying forced labor still exists on the farms. The US Department of Labor called living conditions on the plantations "inhumane," while Customs and Border Protection accused the company of fostering abusive working conditions. Thus, one US official said he thought the ban reversal was purely political; another added that the directive came straight from the White House.
SOURCES: New York Times | New York Times | ABC News
ANALYSIS & OPINION
Working conditions at Central Romana have been described as modern-day slavery. Many of the company's 8,000-plus employees are undocumented Haitian migrants or their descendants, who—despite being born in the Dominican Republic, in some cases on Central Romana's own farms—are not granted citizenship. The company has been known to prey on these workers' vulnerabilities, knowing they cannot leave and seek other employment for fear of deportation. It pays next to nothing, and often withholds wages, preventing workers from accessing even the measly amounts they expected to earn. Central Romana has also been found to force employees into excessive overtime and to house them in dilapidated, overcrowded quarters without drinking water or electricity. According to interviews conducted by human rights groups, "nearly every person interviewed…stated that if they were able to leave, they would." The United States is Central Romana's largest market, and Corporate Accountability Lab says it has become directly “complicit in the very kinds of abuse it claims to oppose." Beyond the concerns about working conditions, lifting the ban raises important questions about the administration's priorities, since the decision looks like a favor granted to Fanjul, whom Trump has called "great" and "a supporter right from the beginning for years." The hypocrisy is also hard to miss: In July 2026, Trump added 43 Chinese companies to a list whose goods are suspected of being made with forced labor iand barred from entry into the US. None of those companies’ principals donated top Trump’s 2024 campaign.
SOURCES: New York Times | New York Times | ABC News | Washington Times
HOW TO FIX IT
Federal action: Under Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1307), US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) can issue a Withhold Release Order (WRO) to block goods suspected of being made with forced labor—which is exactly what it did against Central Romana in 2022. But the statute governs only how a ban is created, not how it is rescinded. Issuing a WRO requires information that "reasonably but not conclusively" indicates forced labor; lifting one carries no statutory evidentiary standard at all. And because the process for reversing a ban lives in agency guidance rather than in law, the executive branch can direct CBP to modify or revoke a WRO without congressional notification or any independent review.
Codify the standard for lifting a ban. Congress could amend Section 307 so that a WRO stays in effect until CBP affirmatively proves—not merely asserts—that forced labor has ended, with no rescission absent a published independent audit conducted with workers and worker-led organizations and signed off by the Department of Labor. CBP's own guidance already recommends the audit; this would make it binding rather than optional.
Make it public. Before a WRO can be rescinded, the government should have to publish its reasoning and the evidence behind it in the Federal Register—the official record where agencies post proposed actions—and open a comment window there, with a requirement that CBP address significant objections in a published decision before the ban comes off. Congress should get advance notice as well.
Require explicit conflict-of-interest recusal protocols within trade enforcement decisions, automatically triggering an independent Inspector General (IG) review if a WRO is modified for a company whose major stakeholders or executives donated over a certain amount to an active administration’s political campaign.
Let Congress reverse it. Right now a rescission is final the moment it's signed; the only recourse is a letter asking why. Congress could make WRO revocations subject to a disapproval resolution—the same mechanism it already uses to overturn agency rules within a set window after they're submitted.
Flip the burden onto the importer. The Department of Labor has listed Dominican sugarcane as a good made with forced labor since 2022, but that list is informational—it does nothing at the border. Congress could attach a "rebuttable presumption" to it, so listed goods are assumed to be made with forced labor and turned away automatically unless the importer proves its shipment is clean. Unlike a WRO, which an agency chooses to impose and can therefore choose to lift, a presumption written into law blocks the goods on its own—so the government no longer has to build a case to stop a shipment, and the company instead has to build one to sell it. And because the list covers a country's crop rather than a single company, no one could undo it for one donor without delisting all Dominican sugarcane.
Let the people affected sue. The only party with legal rights in this process is the company. Workers, unions, and watchdog groups can document abuse for years, as they have here, and still have no way to challenge a rescission in court. Congress cshould give them standing to bring the decision before a federal judge.
Reintroduce and pass the Slave-Free Business Certification Act of 2022, which would require large companies to audit their supply chains and certify to the Labor Department that they're free of forced labor, with penalties for lying. That reaches the American refiners selling Central Romana’s sugar under brands like Domino, and it works whether or not the ban ever comes back. Congress can also go further than the original bill did, adding that a company that finds forced labor in its supply chain gets a fixed window to correct it, and will face penalties if it keeps buying and does nothing.
State action:
Issue state purchasing bans. States, school districts, prisons, and universities buy enormous volumes of sugar, and nothing obliges them to buy it from companies credibly tied to forced labor. A state can set its own standard based on federal findings, the Labor Department's list, and independent investigations and refuse the supplier whether or not the federal ban is in place.
Pass laws like the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010, which requires large retailers and manufacturers doing business in the state to disclose what they do to keep slavery out of their supply chains. But it's disclosure-only, with no audit requirement. Other states could copy it with real verification and penalties attached.
Litigation:
Sue for the record. CBP has never disclosed the evidence behind the reversal, or named the outside sources it claims verified the company's improvements. A public records suit brought by watchdog groups or newsrooms could force that file into the open.
Sue the American sugar buyers. Central Romana's sugar reaches US shelves through refiners the Fanjul family part-owns, sold under brands like Domino—and federal anti-trafficking law reaches any company that knowingly profits from a venture using forced labor. Current and former cane cutters could bring that case in US court, and success could put money in workers' hands. This wouldn’t stop the underlying cronyism, but it would offer a solution to the forced labor itself.
Sue over the ban reversal. A domestic sugar producer undercut by competition from goods made with forced labor would have the clearest standing to challenge the rescission in court. This could put the decision itself in front of a judge.
Legislation: S.3578 - Slave-Free Business Certification Act of 2022 | S.B.657 - California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010
