Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act takes effect in US, banning imports from Xinjiang

Cotton, tomatoes and polysilicon, a material used in the solar panel industry, are among ‘high priority’ sectors that will face scrutiny by US customs agents

Firms can appeal if they provide ‘clear and convincing’ evidence that their supply chains are free of forced labour – a standard US officials call a ‘high bar’

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Polysilicon, a chemical widely used in China’s solar panel industry, is a sector considered “high priority” for US customs agency scrutiny. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 8:54pm, 21 Jun 2022Updated: 8:10am, 22 Jun 2022

The United States began blocking the import of all goods sourced wholly or partly from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Tuesday, marking a significant escalation in Washington’s efforts to combat alleged forced labour in the Chinese region and provoking an angry response from Beijing.

The sweeping ban creates a “rebuttable presumption” that any materials produced in Xinjiang are at risk of being tainted with forced labour – a “guilty-until-proven-innocent” principle that effectively inverts current US customs laws related to forced labour.

Companies can appeal if they can provide “clear and convincing” evidence to customs authorities that their supply chains are free of forced labour – a standard that US officials themselves have described as a “high bar”.

The Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act supersedes a series of individual import bans, known as withhold release orders, targeting certain producers or products that were imposed in recent years amid international concern over human rights conditions in Xinjiang.

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US declares China has committed genocide in its treatment of Uygurs in Xinjiang

Blanket import bans covering an entire region are rare in the US, underscoring the degree to which policymakers in Washington have elevated issues around Beijing’s human rights record.