Transparency & traceability
We push for companies to both know and show where their supply chains are.
Corporations should not be allowed to hide abuses and escape accountability by concealing their supply chains.
Big corporations hide behind complex and opaque supply chains to avoid accountability for exploitation of workers, communities, and the environment. As a result, many violations remain in the dark, leaving impacted communities with little opportunity for recourse.
We need transparent supply chains so that we can see human rights abuses in company supply chains when they happen. Transparency and traceability requirements for companies can provide the data necessary for identifying abuses and holding corporations accountable. Only through visibility into how and where companies conduct business can we ensure that workers, communities, and the environment are protected and thriving.
At ICAR, we work to ensure that corporations disclose sufficient supply chain data to enable worker-driven monitoring and effective enforcement of government laws and regulations.
Updates & Analysis
(June 8, 2026 | Washington, DC) On June 2nd, the US government announced the completion of the Section 301 investigation, imposing a 10% tariff on economies that have imposed full or partial forced labor import bans or have committed to doing so, and a 12.5% tariff on all others.
Although ICAR welcomes the U.S. government leveraging its trade authority to pressure states into taking more concrete action to combat forced labor, a blanket tariff applied across all investigated economies is not the correct approach.
On October 30th, ICAR, Humanity United Action, and the Human Trafficking Legal Center (HTLC) submitted a comment to the U.S. Trade Representative in response to the request for comments on significant foreign trade barriers for the 2026 National Trade Estimate Report.
New ICAR & CSIS Report Highlights How the U.S. Can Improve Government Coordination for a More Rights-Based Approach to Supply Chain Transparency.
On Thursday, November 14, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced an Action Plan for enhancing the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP). The Action Plan provides a comprehensive set of goals and actions, including actions that would incorporate labor rights considerations into SIMP.
Today, ICAR and several partners sent a letter to the members of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC), which is a committee made up of executives from 20 companies that advises U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on ways to streamline trade regulations.
ICAR Applauds the Biden Administration’s Statement on Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing and Forced Labor While Encouraging Broader Data Collection and Analysis
To support enforcement of Section 307 of the Tariff Act and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), ICAR urges the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF) to require companies that import goods into the United States to accurately trace their supply chains for those goods and report comprehensive supply chain information to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as a condition of entry.
A new report by the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) and Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) finds that leveraging existing conservation tools to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing increases the U.S. government’s ability to stop goods produced by forced labor from entering our ports.
With the objective of developing consensus on meaningful supply chain reporting requirements, Frank Bold coordinated the Supply Chains Transparency Project in 2020. The work of this project has resulted in a joint civil society statement which outlines recommendations for standardizable supply chain data and indicators applicable across high-risk sectors.
ICAR is pleased to announce the publication of "Fashion’s Next Trend: Accelerating Supply Chain Transparency in the Garment and Footwear Industry," the second report from the Transparency Pledge coalition. Building on the coalition’s previous efforts, this report takes stock of supply chain transparency as of late 2019.
ICAR is pleased to launch ApparelData.org, a free online data directory that connects advocates seeking to transform working conditions in the apparel and footwear industry with publicly accessible data that can make their efforts more effective. Previously only available as an excel sheet, ApparelData.org is a user-friendly, searchable online database.
A new report by the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) makes the business case for companies to adopt greater supply chain transparency measures, showing that when they do, businesses enjoy better reputations, greater operational efficiency, improved legal compliance, and increased access to capital.
In response to requests from trade unions, and other independent labor rights and human rights organizations, on February 27 the Fair Labor Association (FLA) voted to require its company affiliates to publicly disclose their supplier lists.