US bans new type of goods from China over allegations of forced labour

Today’s actions reaffirm our commitment to eliminating forced labour from US supply chains and upholding our values of human rights for all, said Robert Silvers, undersecretary of Homeland Security for policy. No sector is off-limits. We will continue to identify entities across industries and hold accountable those who seek to profit from exploitation and abuse.

The federal law that President Joe Biden signed at the end of 2021 followed allegations of human rights abuses by Beijing against members of the ethnic Uyghur group and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. The Chinese government has refuted the claims as lies and defended its practice and policy in Xinjiang as fighting terror and ensuring stability.

The new approach marked a shift in the US trade relationship with China to increasingly take into account national security and human rights. Beijing has accused the US of using human rights as a pretext to suppress China’s economic growth.

Enforcement of the law initially targeted solar products, tomatoes, cotton and apparel, but over the last several months, the US government has identified new sectors for enforcement, including aluminum and seafood.

That’s just a reflection of the fact that sadly, forced labour continues to taint all too many supply chains, Silvers told a trade group in June when marking the two-year anniversary of the creation of the entity list. So our enforcement net has actually been quite wide from an industry-sector perspective.

He said the law changed the dynamic in terms of putting the onus on importers to know their own supply chains” and that its enforcement had showed that the U.S. could do the right thing without halting normal trade.

Since June 2022, the entity list has grown to a total of 75 companies accused of using forced labour in Xinjiang or sourcing materials tied to that forced labor, Homeland Security said.

Baowu Group Xinjiang Bayi Iron and Steel Co. Ltd and Changzhou Guanghui Food Ingredients Co. Ltd. were the Chinese companies newly added to the list.

First Published: Oct 03 2024 | 6:45 AM IST