Trump Administration Quietly Lifted Ban on Dominican Sugar Company Over Forced Labor

    The Trump administration has rescinded an order that had blocked a major Dominican sugar producer, Central Romana, from shipping sugar to the United States due to allegations of forced labor at the company. The US Customs and Border Protection website lists the order as “inactive.” Allie Brudney, a senior staff attorney at the US Customs and Broader Protection, states that there has not been "any significant change to warrant any modification to this issue”. The decision to rescind the rule was likely made at the top levels of US Customs and Border Protection because of the sugar producers' powerful ownership. Hilton Beckham, an assistant commissioner for public affairs for Customs and Border Protection, confirmed that the modified order was “documented improvements to labor standards, verified by independent sources” and failed to disclose any of those sources. 

    The company, Central Romana, is the largest landholder and private employer in the Dominican Republic and is partly owned by the Fanjul family, who has been known to be influential in US politics for decades. Many of Central Romana’s workers are Haitian migrants and are uniquely vulnerable due to their lack of citizenship thus unable to seek other employment and fear of deportation. Additionally, these families have been known to be threatened when speaking out about their hardships and evicted from their homes by Central Romana. Since the order to block Central Romana from shipping to the United States “superficial attempts” to remove this order and to avoid remediating their labor practices have occurred. However, their efforts to modify the labor ban have been “substantial” and “deeply concerning” as described by human and labor rights organizations.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/business/economy/trump-sugar-forced-labor-ban-lifted.html