- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
It’s been nearly two years since the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) took effect, and as enforcement statistics and recent reports demonstrate, many businesses are still not adequately vetting their supply chains.
The UFLPA, which has been enforced since June 2022, prohibits goods, including raw materials or finished products, from the Xinjiang region in northwestern China, where the forced labor of Uyghurs is endemic, from entering the United States.
Companies importing from Xinjiang or whose goods from elsewhere are suspected of being tainted by Uyghur forced labor must present detailed supply chain documentation to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials to prove the goods are clean.
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A U.S. Senate report found three European automakers—Volkswagen, BMW, and Jaguar Land Rover—sold cars in the United States with parts sourced from a supplier suspected of using forced labor from China’s Xinjiang region.
The Department of Homeland Security announced its largest batch of additions to the list of companies blocked under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in the form of a sweep of the Chinese textile industry.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is calling on the Biden administration to investigate and ban Chinese e-commerce company Temu over forced labor and data privacy violation concerns.
The U.S. Department of Commerce unveiled a diagnostic supply chain risk assessment tool, which will “utilize a comprehensive set of indicators to assess structural supply chain risk across the U.S. economy,” the agency said.
Companies will need to tighten up how they monitor their supply chains after a recent U.K. ruling determined that corporates could be open to money laundering charges if they fail to act in cases where they believe there is a risk of forced labor.
Although compliance should be the company’s primary responsibility, auditors have become the last line of defense and are getting pressured and blamed for supply chain issues, including instances of child labor. Is this expected to become the normal for the profession?
