- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Adrianne Appel2024-10-04T13:28:00
Steel and an artificial sweetener made by two Chinese companies using forced labor have been banned from entering the U.S. under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA).
Extensive evidence shows that Uyghurs, and other ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region, are being forced to work as slaves by Chinese officials. The UFLPA is designed to pressure China to halt its use of forced labor, which is endemic in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.
The UFLPA, in effect since June 2022, bans from entry into the U.S. any goods that are made with Uyghur forced labor in Xinjiang. Importers who want to bring any goods into the U.S. that are on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) entities list, or that have been manufactured in or transported through the Xinjiang region must prove to Customs and Border Patrol officials, through extensive supply chain evidence, that the goods were not made with slave labor, according to the DHS.
Businesses have said they find it challenging to comply with the UFLPA.
“The UFLPA is catalyzing American businesses to fully examine and assess their supply chains and setting a new standard for our international partners as we work together to eradicate forced labor from the global economy,” said Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of Homeland Security, in a press release Wednesday.
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security added three China-based entities across the seafood, aluminum, and footwear industries to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List.
By requiring U.S. importers to prove that their supply chains are free of forced labor, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) has created heightened nationwide demand for sophisticated supply chain mapping and risk identification capabilities.
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