Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Reintroduced in Senate
The Senate version of a House bill on preventing the importation of goods made with forced labor in China's Xinjiang region has been reintroduced. Although the House bill passed in September 2020 on a 406-3 vote (see 2009220038), it too, will have to be reintroduced, since this is a new Congress.
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Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., are the lead sponsors on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which also has 15 other Republican co-sponsors and 12 other Democratic co-sponsors.
In a press release announcing the Jan. 27 reintroduction, Merkley said, “The fact that some of the products they’ve been forced to produce are ending up on American shelves is disturbing and unacceptable. We must ban the importation of these goods to ensure that we are not complicit in the genocide, and fully commit ourselves to holding the perpetrators accountable for these atrocities.”
The bill requires opportunity for public comments and a public hearing on how to ensure goods made with forced labor in China are not imported, then calls on the administration to develop a strategy within 270 days of the bill becoming law, including recommendations for CBP initiatives to identify and trace goods made in Xinjiang. That report would also need to include a description of how CBP will enhance its use of legal authorities to make sure no imports are happening in violation of existing forced labor import prohibitions.
Importers would face a rebuttable presumption that goods made in Xinjiang are made with forced labor, though CBP would also create guidance for importers on how to do effective due diligence, and what type and extent of evidence they would need to demonstrate that imported goods were not made with forced labor. If they fully followed the guidance, and were able to respond to CBP inquiries about forced labor with substantive and complete information, they could overcome the presumption, the bill says.