U.S. Moves to Curb Suspect China Goods : Trade: Items believed to have been made by prisoners or forced labor will be stopped by Customs officials.

In a groundbreaking case, the U.S. Customs Service moved Friday to hold up shipments of certain Chinese goods that are suspected of being produced by convict labor or forced labor.

The action is the first taken by the Bush Administration in response to allegations that China exports goods made by prisoners in labor camps and other penal institutions. The Customs order covers specific types of wrenches and steel pipe made by three Shanghai companies.

If any of these goods are found to be the products of prison labor, they would be destroyed or shipped back to China. A federal law prohibits the importation into the United States of any goods made by convict labor.

In a press release, U.S. Customs Commissioner Carol Hallett said that the order against the Chinese goods “will bring the full force of 5,500 inspectors, 1,200 import specialists and many of our 2,800 agents to bear on this problem.”

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said that his government would have no immediate comment.

Administration officials apparently hope that the new Customs action, as well as the possible imposition soon of other, broader trade sanctions against the Chinese government, may help persuade Congress to hold off on its continuing efforts to impose restrictions on China’s most-favored-nation trade benefits. A country with most-favored status has the right to send goods into the United States with the same low tariffs available to most other U.S. trading partners.

Over the opposition of President Bush, both houses of Congress have passed legislation that would make the renewal of China’s most-favored-nation status next year conditional on improvements in its policies on human rights, trade and weapons proliferation. Members of the Senate and House are now trying to iron out differences between the two versions of the legislation and to decide whether to press for enactment before the end of this year.

The Administration contends that each trade, arms or human-rights issue should be addressed through specific actions, rather than by imposing broad restrictions on China’s trading status.

“In finally moving to enforce U.S. law, Customs is taking an important first step in pressing for improvement in the Chinese prison system,” said Mike Jendrzejczyk of the human rights group Asiawatch. “Now it’s up to the Administration to demand that China allow international access to labor camps, prisons and other places of detention.”

The Customs action stems primarily from the investigative work of Harry Wu, a former political prisoner in China. Wu, who says he was imprisoned during China’s “anti-rightist” campaign of 1957 for criticizing the Soviet invasion of Hungary, spent nearly 20 years in Chinese labor camps. He left China in 1985 and is now living in Milpitas, Calif.

For several years, Wu has been gathering evidence about the use of prison labor in China and has been trying to bring it to the attention of congressional investigators and other government officials.

Last summer, Wu returned to China twice and visited more than 20 prison camps, accompanied by his wife and, in some cases, a concealed video camera. Pretending to be a Chinese-American businessman, he sought to buy goods manufactured by prison inmates and videotaped conversations with Chinese officials who acknowledged the use of prison labor. Some of the tapes were shown last month on CBS television’s “60 Minutes.”

In an interview Friday, Wu said he provided U.S. Customs with the information leading to Friday’s action.

“It is a significant step,” he said. “This is only the third time in the past 60 years that the United States has banned some products produced by forced labor.”

According to Asiawatch, the only other cases were against some Soviet goods in 1951 and some Mexican furniture in 1971.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), whom the Bush Administration considers an important swing vote on the China-trade legislation, said the Customs action is “a constructive first step in addressing the prison labor problem. I expect this to be the first in a series of new steps addressing congressional concerns with China.”