Bill to ban imports of all Xinjiang products reintroduced in the US House of Representatives
- Legislation, now in both chambers, would prohibit import of any goods unless ‘convincing evidence’ shows forced labour was not involved in production
- While White House support is unclear, Biden has pledged Beijing will face ‘repercussions’ for its actions in Xinjiang
The US House of Representatives has reintroduced sweeping legislation that would ban the import of all goods sourced in China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, over concerns of widespread, state-backed forced labour there.
Lawmakers filed the bill, the Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act, on Thursday, almost five months after the House approved a previous version in a near-unanimous vote. That legislation, which had broad bipartisan support, was wiped from the docket after it failed to move through the Senate before that congressional session came to a close in January.
If enacted, the bill would prohibit US businesses from importing any goods produced wholly or in part in Xinjiang, unless there is “clear and convincing evidence” that forced labour was not involved in their production.
The presumption that all goods sourced in Xinjiang are tainted with forced labour revises current US customs laws, which prohibit imports if there is evidence they have been produced using forced labour.
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China hits back at UK claims of forced sterilisations and other human rights abuses against Uygurs
“We have watched in horror as the Chinese government first created and then expanded a system of extrajudicial mass internment camps targeting Uygurs and Muslim minorities,” Representative James McGovern, the Massachusetts Democrat who led the legislation in the House, said in a statement.