NEW YORK -- The chair of the committee that puts together the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act entity list told an audience from the apparel industry that the process is no "rubber stamp," and is instead a "meaningful process" involving investigations by agencies on the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force.
Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on China, said that policymaking around economic competition with China is "messy."
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RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- University and nongovernmental organization reports on forced labor are not necessarily taken at face value, a CBP official said Oct. 27 at the Pacific Coast Council's Western Cargo Conference., known as Wesccon. With any report, an "import specialist or an analyst" has to make the "ultimate decision," Eric Choy, CBP executive director of trade remedy law enforcement, said.
Despite the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which should put a damper on exports in supply chains of goods that are destined for the U.S., exports from Xinjiang are climbing sharply, by nearly 50%, according to a recent report in the South China Morning Post.
A research paper says that prison camps for Uyghurs were phased out in 2019, and now, labor transfers have become the main mechanism of forced labor, usually for rural people who were never imprisoned. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act tries to address labor transfers outside of Xinjiang by noting that they, too, are presumed to be forced labor, but the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force has identified few companies or facilities in Eastern China that have employed Muslim minority workers.
The co-chairs of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China called on DHS to report on actions it has taken to address forced labor in seafood supply chains, noting that the agency already had been informed of the contents of a recent article detailing forced labor in Chinese seafood processing operations before it was published.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.