Ivanka Trump attends a panel discussion for a women's entrepreneur initiative at the G20 summit in Hamburg. Credit:Getty Images As the Trumps stood on stage, a hulking container ship called the OOCL Ho Chi Minh City was pulling into the harbour of Long Beach, California carrying around hundreds of kilograms of foreign-made Ivanka Trump spandex-knit blouses. Another 10 ships hauling Ivanka Trump-branded shoes, cardigans and leather handbags bound for the United States were floating in the north Pacific and Atlantic oceans and off the coasts of Malta, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and Yemen. Those global journeys were just some of more than 2,000 shipments Ms Trump had imported into the US since 2010. They illustrate how her business practices collide with some of the key principles she and her father have championed in the White House. While Mr Trump has chastised companies for outsourcing jobs overseas, an examination by The Washington Post has revealed the extent to which his daughter's company relies exclusively on foreign factories in countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and China, where low-wage labourers have limited ability to advocate for themselves.

Trump Tower in New York, the headquarters of Ivanka Trump's company. Credit:Bloomberg And while Ms Trump published a book this year declaring that improving the lives of working women is "my life's mission," the Washington Post found that her company lags behind many in the apparel industry when it comes to monitoring the treatment of the largely female workforce employed in factories around the world. From big brands such as Adidas and Kenneth Cole to smaller, newer players like California-based Everlane, many US clothing companies have in recent years made protecting factory workers abroad a priority by hiring independent auditors to monitor labour conditions, pressing factory owners to make improvements and providing consumers with details about the overseas facilities where their goods are produced. Workers on the assembly line at the Huajian shoe factory in Dongguan, China, where shoes for Ivanka Trump's company have been produced. Credit:New York Times But the Ivanka Trump brand has taken a more hands-off approach. Although executives say they have a code of conduct that prohibits physical abuse and child labour, the company relies on its suppliers to abide by the policy.

The clothing line declined to disclose the language of the code. A factory worker make shoes at the Chinese company Huajian's plant in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Huajian produces some Ivanka Trump products. Huajian workers in China say they face long hours, low pay and verbal abuse. Huajian has been moving some of its production to Ethiopia, where labour costs are even lower. Credit:AP Ms Trump, who now works full time in the White House, has stepped away from daily operations of her business. She has assumed a high-profile place on the world stage – a role that was on display last weekend when she briefly filled in for her father during a meeting with foreign leaders, seated between the president of China and the British prime minister. The President's daughter still owns her company, which has faced increasing scrutiny in recent months for its use of overseas factories. Some factories used by Ivanka Trump's brand have been accused of exploiting their mainly female workers. Credit:AP

Ms Trump's representatives have said she has the power to veto new deals, but she has not responded to requests for comment about what efforts she made to oversee her company's supply chain before she joined the administration. 'Concerned' about exploitation Her attorney Jamie Gorelick said in a statement that Ms Trump is "concerned" about recent reports regarding the treatment of factory workers and "expects that the company will respond appropriately." Chinese labour activists Li Zhao and Hua Haifeng (with his son) leave a police station after being released in Ganzhou following their arrest in relation to their investigations into factories used by Ivanka Trump's brand. Credit:AP In the wake of Ms Trump's departure, the brand started exploring hiring a non-profit workers' rights group to increase oversight of its production and help improve factory conditions, the company's executives said.

Abigail Klem, who has been the brand's president since 2013, said she was planning her first trip to tour some of the facilities that make Ivanka Trump products. A security guard at the Ganzhou Huajian International Shoe City Co, which has been used by Ivanka Trump's brand. Credit:AP Ms Klem said she was confident that the company's suppliers were operating "at the highest standards," adding, "Ivanka sought to partner with the best in the industry." The company had not yet matched the policies of other labels because it was newer and smaller, she added, but is now focusing on what more it can do. Ivanka Trump in Poland with her husband, Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, during the President's recent European trip. Credit:AP

"The mission of this brand has always been to inspire and empower women to create the lives they want to live and give them tools to do that," Ms Klem said. "We're looking to ensure that we can sort of live this mission from top to bottom with our licensees, with our supply chain." 'First daughter' Ivanka Trump's business empire is under growing scrutiny. Credit:AP The company still has no immediate plans to follow the emerging industry trend of publishing the names and locations of factories that produce its goods. It declined to provide a list of the facilities. Instead, The Washington Post used data drawn from US customs logs and international shipping records to trace Trump-branded products from far-flung factories to ports around the United States.

Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner, both White House advisers, at the Royal Court Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during US President Donald Trump's visit. Credit:AP 'My salary is not enough' The paper also interviewed workers at three garment factories that have made Ivanka Trump products who said their jobs often come with exhausting hours, subsistence pay and insults from supervisors if they don't work fast enough. "My monthly salary is not enough for everyday expenses, also not for the future," said a 26-year-old sewing operator in Subang, Indonesia, who said she has helped make Ivanka Trump dresses. Ivanka Trump during a meeting at the White House. Credit:Bloomberg

Like many US-based apparel companies, the Ivanka Trump brand signs deals with suppliers, which, in turn, contract manufacturing work to factories around the world. The system allows products to be sold to consumers for lower prices and creates economic opportunity – and risks – for workers in poor regions. In China, where three activists investigating factories making her line were recently arrested, assembly-line workers produce Ivanka Trump woven blouses, shoes and handbags. Labourers in Indonesia stitch together her dresses and knit tops. Suit jackets are assembled in Vietnam, cotton tops in India and denim pants in Bangladesh – a country with a huge apparel industry where garment workers typically earn a minimum wage of about $90 a month and where some have recently faced a harsh crackdown from factory owners after seeking higher pay. And in Ethiopia, where manufacturers have boasted of paying workers a fifth of what they earn in Chinese factories, workers made thousands of pounds of Ivanka Trump-brand shoes in 2013, shipping data shows. 'America first' policy not posisble

Ms Klem, the Trump brand president, said the company was exploring ways to produce some goods in the United States but that "to do it at a large scale is currently not possible." She was speaking from the fashion line's offices on the 23rd floor of Trump Tower, three floors below the headquarters of the Trump Organisation owned by the President. "The workers no longer exist here or only in very small, small capacity; the machinery in many instances does not exist here," Ms Klem said. "It is a very complex problem." Industry experts say about 97 per cent of all clothing and shoes purchased in the United States is imported from countries where wages are lower and products can be made more cheaply. If Ivanka Trump's company followed the US President's exhortations to move production to the United States, its prices would rise dramatically, potentially pushing buyers away and dragging down company profits, according to industry experts.

The Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, a non-profit organisation, estimated in 2013 that a denim shirt that cost $4.81 to make in Bangladesh would cost more than three times as much to make in the United States. Instead of pulling production back into the United States, the apparel industry has been focused on a different strategy: trying to reassure American consumers that their retail purchases are not the result of exploitation. A wide range of clothing lines now inspect their own supply chains to make sure labour standards are met. Many smaller brands turn to industry-backed groups, such as the Fair Labour Association or the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, to help address factory conditions and worker treatment. "The questions today aren't whether to engage in [monitoring factories], but whether to go beyond, all the way down to the cotton fields," said Doug Cahn, a former Reebok executive who pioneered the development of corporate codes of conduct and now consults for brands and manufacturers. The Ivanka Trump company's relatively passive approach is notable – as is its lack of participation in industry efforts to improve conditions for workers, according to labour advocates.

"I have been doing this stuff for 20 years, and I have never seen her brand in any of these venues," said Judy Gearhart, executive director of the International Labour Rights Forum. Ms Klem said that "as a small, young brand, we did not have the chance to influence the debate around social compliance issues, but that has obviously changed during this past year." "We recognise that our brand name carries a special responsibility," she added. Ivanka Trump was a 26-year-old model and guest judge on her father's reality show, The Apprentice, when she took on her first solo venture outside the family business: lending her name and creative energy to a Manhattan diamond boutique. Initially, Ms Trump's brand put an emphasis on sustainability. In 2011, her company introduced a short-lived bridal jewellry collection made from "eco-friendly" Canadian-mined diamonds and recycled platinum.

"It's just good business to care about everyone involved in the various layers of production . . . especially when the end product is such a beautiful symbol of love," Ms Trump said, according to a news release by the group. By then, she had started expanding into other products, eventually signing deals for clothes, shoes and handbags. Shipping data shows that tonnes of Ivanka Trump-brand shoes were rolling off factory production lines in Dongguan, the sprawling industrial city in southern China, and onto container ships with names such as APL Beijing and Hyundai Dynasty. Ivanka Trump's clothing line quickly became the core of her business, with mid-market prices and an expanding collection of stylish pumps, off-the-shoulder tops and flower-print cocktail dresses. In late 2012, Trump signed a deal with G-III, an established apparel group known for its work with Guess, Calvin Klein and celebrity brands such as Jessica Simpson. Ms Trump's collection flourished and, with it, production ramped up in G-III's contract factories across China and Vietnam, according to shipping data.

In 2016, G-III told Forbes that the Ivanka Trump clothing line had generated $130 million in retail revenue in the past year. In last year's presidential campaign, Ms Trump took the opportunity to showcase her products on the national stage. After she paid tribute to her father at the Republican National Convention in one of her soft-pink sheath dresses, her social media team urged buyers to "shop Ivanka's look," and the $178 Chinese-made dress quickly sold out. In the company's Trump Tower headquarters, a staff of about 16 employees runs the Ivanka Trump design team, social media accounts and branding campaigns – including #WomenWhoWork, a hashtag that emerged as the company's driving motto. Running into opposition In recent months, however, efforts to market the upbeat Ivanka Trump clothing brand have run headlong into the polarising Trump political brand.

After Nordstrom dropped her line in February, the President complained on Twitter that his daughter had been "treated so unfairly," and pro-Trump supporters rushed to buy her products. Presidential counsellor Kellyanne Conway drew a rebuke from federal ethics officials for telling TV viewers, from the White House press room, to "go buy Ivanka's stuff." Ms Klem said the controversies have not hurt sales. She declined to disclose figures, but said that the brand's business is "growing rapidly." Revenue was up 21 per cent in 2016, with continuing growth in 2017, executives said. In May, Lord & Taylor stores showcased the newest items in the Ivanka Trump denim collection. Affixed to each was a label brandishing the #WomenWhoWork slogan, featuring aspirational admonishments such as "Act purposefully" and "Invest in each other." The labels on the jeans show they were made for G-III Apparel in Bangladesh, whose garment industry has weathered a series of deadly factory disasters, including a 2013 building collapse that killed more than 1,100 workers. In the wake of that tragedy, Disney pulled its production out of the country, and brands such as Walmart and Gap vowed to pay for safety training for factory managers. Shipping records do not reveal which factories in the country produce Ivanka Trump goods, and both the brand and G-III refused to say which facilities make her products.

G-III spokesman Chris Giglio said the company's supply chain is "routinely audited by us and by independent third parties. When issues arise, we work with our local partners to find and implement safe, fair and sustainable solutions." Along with facing safety risks, Bangladeshi garment workers toil for one of the world's lowest minimum wages. "We are the ultra-poor," said Kalpona Akter, a Bangladeshi labour organiser and former garment worker who was first hired by a factory at the age of 12. "We are making you beautiful, but we are starving." Financial insecurity is also a constant companion for the predominantly female workforce at PT Buma, a factory in Indonesia's West Java province that produced a batch of Ivanka-branded knit dresses that shipping records show arrived in Newark on January 18, two days before Mr Trump's inauguration. K, a 26-year-old sewing-machine operator, said she makes the equivalent of $198 a month, the region's minimum wage. Her full name, like that of other workers, is being withheld because the workers fear being punished or fired for speaking to the media.

She said she spends $29 to rent her small studio in the bustling factory town of Subang, where she sleeps on a mattress on the floor and hangs her clothes from a string hung along the wall. She saves the rest for her two-year-old daughter but worries she will not be able to afford elementary school fees, which can cost as much as $291 a year. A 25-year-old woman said PT Buma hires her as a fabric cutter on a day-to-day basis, paying her a monthly salary that ranges between $88 to $174 for as much as 24 days of work – far below the region's minimum wage and a rate that workers advocates say is probably a violation of local law. The fabric cutter and her husband have to borrow money to cover their daily expenses and those of their 10-year-old son, who lives 45 minutes away with his grandmother. She sees him about once a month. Their possessions consist of her husband's motorbike and their clothes. "I have nothing," she said.

Inside the factory, workers said supervisors berate employees if they fall behind their targets or if stitches need to be redone. "Work faster, these clothes are urgent," one 30-year-old employee said she was told. "Why do you work slow?" PT Buma participates in Better Work, an international program to improve garment industry conditions, according to the Better Work website. When asked about the working environment at PT Buma, Ms Klem said in a statement that the brand hopes to develop programs to support the "thousands of women" in its supply chain. For K, the dresses she has helped produce seem as out of reach as the daughter of the US President herself, whose name the worker said she now wishes she had chosen for her own little girl.

"Ivanka clothes are beautiful, expensive, sexy – just perfect," she said. The dangers to workers who try to seek better labour conditions are especially acute in China, where activists say heavy surveillance and police presences are used to protect company profits and the country's lucrative reputation as the "factory of the world." Ivanka Trump's products have been made in more than two dozen factories across China since 2010, shipping data shows. Yen Sheng, a Hong Kong-based company, has shipped thousands of Ivanka Trump cowhide-leather handbags and other items since 2015, customs records show. Employees in Dongguan said the company withholds sick pay unless employees are hospitalised and avoids paying overtime by outsourcing work to the unregulated one-room factories that dot Dongguan's back streets. But pressing for change is not an option, they said.

"If you don't work, other people will," one woman at the company's Dongguan subsidiary Yen Hing Leather Works said. "If you protest, the company will ask the police to handle it. The owner is very rich. He can ask the police to come." Ivanka Trump brand executives said its products are not made at Yen Hing. A manager at the Dongguan factory, Huang Huihong, said its workers had produced Ivanka Trump goods in the past. Mondani, the Trump brand's handbag supplier, did not respond to requests for comment. The work conditions at Chinese factories that make Ivanka Trump's products have gained public attention in recent weeks after the detentions of three activists from a group called China Labour Watch who were investigating the facilities. The US State Department denounced the arrests, saying that labour rights activists "have been instrumental in helping . . . American companies understand the conditions involving their supply chains."

Ms Trump has not spoken publicly about the case. Her attorney said that because of her White House role, Ms Trump "has been advised that she cannot ask the government to act in an issue involving the brand in any way, constraining her ability to intervene personally." Ms Klem said in a statement that while the factory has not produced Trump goods since March, "the integrity of our supply chain is a top priority and we take all allegations very seriously." The company that supplies Trump-brand shoes, Marc Fisher, said it would look into the allegations. In the meantime, Ms Trump has been increasing her international profile as an advocate for working women. During a trip this year with her father to Saudi Arabia, she told a group of Saudi female leaders that she aims "to help empower women in the United States and around the globe." In May, she published her book, Women Who Work, in which she detailed her commitment to promoting equitable work conditions.

"As a leader and a mother, I feel it's as much my responsibility to cultivate an environment that supports people – and the roles we hold, both in our family and business lives – as it is to post profits," Ms Trump wrote. "One cannot suffer at the expense of the other – they go hand in hand." In late June, she helped unveil the State Department's latest human-trafficking report, which labelled China one of the world's worst offenders on forced labour. Loading "Let us recommit ourselves," she said, "to finding those still in the shadows of exploitation." Washington Post