Uyghur Forced Labor Act Becomes Law

President Joe Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Act Dec. 23. Under the act, the rebuttable presumption that goods with a nexus to China's Xinjiang province are made with forced labor will begin June 21.

That is also the day CBP is required to produce guidance for importers on what sort of evidence is sufficient to prove that goods were not made with forced labor, and to identify which companies outside the province are either using inputs from Xinjiang or accepting transferred Muslim workers from there.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., whose push to append this bill to the National Defense Authorization Act apparently spurred the House to arrive at a compromise between the two chambers' versions, welcomed the news that the bill had become law. “This is the most important and impactful action taken thus far by the United States to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for their use of slave labor,” he said. “It will fundamentally change our relationship with Beijing. This law should also ensure that Americans no longer unknowingly buy goods made by slaves in China. I look forward to working with the Biden Administration and my colleagues to ensure the new law is implemented correctly and enforced properly.”

With the act now signed into law, “we can finally ensure that American consumers and businesses can buy goods without inadvertent complicity in China’s horrific human rights abuses,” co-sponsor Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said. “As the Chinese government tries to whitewash their genocide and claim a propaganda victory with the upcoming Olympics, this legislation sends a powerful, bipartisan message that the United States will not turn a blind eye.”