USA: House of Representatives votes in favour of law aimed at preventing import of goods produced by ethnic minority forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region
“US House of Representatives votes to take action against forced labour in cotton supply chains”, 22 September 2020
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (H. R. 6210) establishes the legal presumption that any product arriving at US ports that was manufactured in the Uyghur Region, or contains inputs from the region, was made using forced labour. Unless the corporation importing the product can prove [otherwise].
The House has recognized that forced labour is ubiquitous in the Uyghur Region and that the climate of political repression makes it impossible to do the kind of labour inspections that would allow brands and retailers to ensure that any farm or factory is free of forced labour. Given this reality, the only way brands and retailers can keep forced labour out of their supply chains and out of goods they import into the US is to extricate their supply chains from the Uyghur Region.
The US House’s action sends a powerful message to apparel brands and retailers, and other corporations selling goods in the US, that complicity in forced labor in the Uyghur Region will no longer be tolerated.