U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working hard to prevent the importation of forced labor-made goods from the Xinjiang region of China.
DHS is trying to prevent importation of slave-labor made goods while facilitating lawful trade, DHS said in its statement issued Dec. 23, a year after President Joe Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
"The use of forced labor is a heinous act and our department will continue to devote its full energy to combat it," DHS Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said in the statement. "The enforcement of the UFLPA is a moral imperative; we will continue to prevent goods produced by forced labor, particularly through the repression of ethnic minorities in China, from entering the United States. We will uphold our nation's values, enforce our laws and protect the integrity of lawful trade and the rights of the individual worker."
Since Biden signed the UFLPA "with overwhelming bipartisan support," and DHS has taken a number of steps to enforce it, the statement said. Those steps include collaboration with non-governmental organizations, industry and federal partners "to keep goods made with forced labor from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region out of U.S. commerce, while facilitating the flow of legitimate trade."
The statement cited information from the U.S. Customs and Boarder Protection about more than 2,300 identified entries valued at almost $740 million held for further examination under the UFLPA as of earlier this month. There also have been "hundreds of meetings with importers to clarify the adjudication process," the statement said.
"Forced labor is a scourge and DHS will continue to prevent goods made with forced labor from entering the United States, whether they come from the People's Republic of China or any other part of the world," DHS Under Secretary for Policy and Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force Chair Robert Silvers said in the statement. "We are committed to eradicating forced labor from our supply chains. We are also committed to deepening our partnership with industry and civil society to further improve implementation of this new regime, ensuring that lawful commerce can proceed efficiently at the same time that we enforce our laws."
