The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF), as part of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), released a strategy June 17 to prevent the importation of products made with forced labor in China.
The UFLPA, signed into law by President Joe Biden in December 2021, set the timetable for the DHS to release the strategy and start implementing the law, according to a DHS press release.
“We must combat these inhumane and exploitative practices while ensuring that legitimate goods can enter at our ports and reach American businesses and consumers as quickly as possible,” Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, said in the release.
Mayorkas noted that the Department is focused on ending forced labor worldwide, including in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where China uses forced labor from the Uyghurs and other Muslim-majority communities, the release stated.
Robert Silvers, undersecretary for policy and FLETF chairman, said that the use of forced labor puts legitimate manufacturers around the world at a competitive disadvantage.
The strategy, which has been delivered to Congress, will help battle the forced labor problem while the United States seeks meaningful trade, he said in the release.
