The US Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday announced that it would ban the import of goods from a Chinese steel manufacturer and a Chinese maker of artificial sweetener, accusing both of being involved in the use of forced labor in China’s western Xinjiang region.
The action broadens the scope of the US effort to counter products from entering the country that the government says are tied to human rights abuses.
The additions to the entity list under the US Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act marks the first time a China-based steel company or aspartame sweetener business have been targeted by US law enforcement, the department said.
Photo: AP
“Today’s actions reaffirm our commitment to eliminating forced labor from US supply chains and upholding our values of human rights for all,” US Undersecretary of Homeland Security for Policy Robert Silvers said.
“No sector is off-limits. We will continue to identify entities across industries and hold accountable those who seek to profit from exploitation and abuse,” he said.
The federal law that US President Joe Biden signed at the end of 2021 followed allegations of human rights abuses by Beijing against members of the ethnic Uighur group and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
The Chinese government has denied the accusations.
The new approach marked a shift in the US trade relationship with China to increasingly take into account national security and human rights.
Beijing has accused the US of using human rights as a pretext to suppress China’s economic growth.
Enforcement of the law initially targeted solar products, tomatoes, cotton and apparel, but over the past several months, the US government has identified new sectors for enforcement, including aluminum and seafood.
“That’s just a reflection of the fact that sadly, forced labor continues to taint all too many supply chains,” Silvers told a trade group in June when marking the two-year anniversary of the creation of the entity list. “So our enforcement net has actually been quite wide from an industry-sector perspective.”
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