South Korea Aims to Lift US Ban on Sea Salt Imports over Suspected Forced Labor

Reuters

17:11 JST, April 7, 2025

SEOUL, April 7 (Reuters) – South Korea said on Monday it will work to lift a U.S. ban on salt imports from the country’s largest sea salt farm, disputing findings by the U.S. customs agency that forced labor appeared to be involved in salt production.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued last week an order to detain products from Taepyung Salt Farm “based on information that reasonably indicates the use of forced labor,” it said in a statement.

South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said on Monday that the U.S. measure took place years after an activist organization petitioned for the order in 2022.

Since violations such as workers being paid inadequately at the salt farm in the southwest of the Korean peninsula came to light by 2021, the ministry has already enforced improvement measures and the products being exported to the United States are not produced by forced labor, the ministry said.

The ministry was surveying the workforce of salt farms every year, expanding support for automation to reduce the need for labor as well as other measures, it said in a statement.

South Korean ministries will pursue measures necessary to lift the U.S. order, and continue to promote the human rights of salt farm workers, it said.

Taepyung Salt Farm said in a statement that past labor issues were related to a former tenant in 2021, who had been forcibly removed from the farm in 2023.

As of 2025 it had signed consignment contracts with 25 tenants, who were producing salt in compliance with relevant labor laws, it said.

The operations produce about 15,000 tonnes of salt a year, an official said.