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Updated December 9th, 2021 at 12:14 IST

US House passes bill to ban imports produced by persecuted groups from China's Xinjiang

Chinese goods sold to the United States made at internment camps in northwest China by the forced labour from Uyghur minority community were banned by US

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
US
IMAGE: AP | Image:self
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US House of Representatives on Wednesday approved Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act that economically sanctions Chinese goods sold to the United States made at internment camps in northwest China by the forced labour from Uyghur minority community. "This is not a partisan issue. It is a human rights issue. It is a moral issue," Rep. Jim McGovern, the sponsor of the bill told NPR. The legislation received an overwhelming 428-1 vote, and US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Marco Rubio united in their stance, stressing that it is an issue against Chinese abuse of human rights where all US lawmakers unite. 

“Goods manufactured or produced in Xinjiang shall not be entitled to entry into the United States unless Customs and Border Protection (1) determines that the goods were not manufactured by convict labor, forced labor, or indentured labor under penal sanctions; and (2) reports such a determination to Congress and to the public,” US Congress stated. 

“The President [Joe Biden] shall impose property-blocking sanctions on the listed individuals and entities and impose visa-blocking sanctions on the listed individuals,” it added. 

The decision to ban imports from China's Xinjiang region was taken after earlier last week, US Senator Marco Rubio issued a statement to the Biden administration for banning all goods made in China’s Xinjiang region. His appeal was made following US Customs and Border Protection’s ban on importation of silica-based products made by Hoshine Silicon Industry Co., Ltd., a company located in Xinjiang province. “For months, I’ve been inquiring about the solar industry’s use of forced labour in Xinjiang,” Rubio said. “Today, the Biden Administration took a step in the right direction by banning the import of solar materials from a Chinese company,” he acknowledged. 

“The Senate must quickly pass the Rubio-Merkley Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and ensure that goods and products, made wholly or in part with forced labor from Xinjiang or associated Chinese government labor schemes, cannot enter the US market,” the Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Rubio said. 

The newly passed "Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act" would ban all the imports in the US from Xinjiang unless the Biden administration can establish if they weren’t manufactured across industries with the forced labour of Uyghurs. The bill is now waiting to be signed by US President Joe Biden for it to come into effect immediately. 

What’s the bill all about?

US’ "Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act" creates a "rebuttable presumption" that all goods produced in China’s Xinjiang where the communist regime violated human rights, were made using forced labour, and must be boycotted. The Chinese corporations will now have to produce "clear and convincing evidence" that such goods did not deploy ethnic minority forced labour during the manufacturing process. The Bill also felicitates the sanctions to be imposed on foreign entities who "knowingly" purchase or use the goods manufactured in China made out of Uyghur forced labour.

The legislation targets "goods, wares, articles, and merchandise imported directly from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region or made by Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tibetans, or members of other persecuted groups in China.”And the bill’s goal is to ensure that "goods made with forced labour in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China do not enter the United States market."

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Published December 9th, 2021 at 12:14 IST

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