China: United States bans imports of products from forced labor by Uyghurs – franceinfo

Firmness. US President Joe Biden on Thursday, December 23, signed a law banning the purchase of products believed to be the result of forced labor by Uyghurs in China. The text provides for the banning of products manufactured in whole or in part in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, unless companies are able to provide proof that the products were not made with forced labor. This is a world first.

Today, I signed the bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The United States will continue to use every tool at our disposal to ensure supply chains are free from the use of forced labor – including from Xinjiang and other parts of China. pic.twitter.com/kd4fk2CvmJ

– President Biden (@POTUS) December 23, 2021

The law calls for special attention to imports of three products: cotton, of which Xinjiang is one of the world’s major producers, tomatoes, also mass-produced in the region, and polysilicon, a material used in the production. of photovoltaic panels.

This law gives the government “new tools to prevent the entry into the territory of products made with forced labor in Xinjiang and to hold accountable the people and entities behind these abuses”Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, calling on the Chinese government to end “to genocide and crimes against humanity”.

In rare unanimity, the Senate voted on December 16 for this text, supported by both Democrats and Republicans, supporters of an aggressive policy against Beijing. This measurement is “the most important and effective taken so far to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its use of forced labor”, commented Republican Senator from Florida Marco Rubio, one of the authors of the bill.

This vote came despite a lobbying campaign by American companies, some of which are very dependent on their supplies in China, and which are shaking the scarecrow of additional disruptions to world trade, already disrupted by the pandemic.