WASHINGTON: Four companies and a manufacturing plant in northwest China were prevented from shipping their products to the United States due to their alleged reliance on the forced labor of people detained as part of a massive campaign against ethnic minorities in the region.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued orders Monday to freeze imports of companies that produce cotton, clothing and computer parts in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, where authorities have detained more than 1 million. of people in detention camps as part of the repression.
CBP also stopped imports of hair products made at a manufacturing facility where authorities believe Uighurs and other ethnic minorities are being forced to work.
Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, dismissed the idea that the facility is a “vocational” center, as Chinese authorities have described it.
“It is a concentration camp, a place where religious and ethnic minorities are abused and forced to work in atrocious conditions, without recourse or freedom,” said Cuccinelli. “This is modern slavery.” The treatment of people in Xinjiang has become a source of friction between the United States and China amid broader tensions over trade and the response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Over the past year, the Trump administration issued eight of what are known as “release hold orders” on goods from China to block goods contaminated by forced labor and is considering additional measures amid ongoing disputes over trade and other problems. between the two countries.
Among the measures under consideration is an order banning cotton and tomatoes in the entire Xinjiang region, a measure that could have significant economic effects. Cuccinelli said the administration was still studying the proposal.
“We are gathering more evidence there, but we are also doing a more comprehensive legal analysis to make sure we can withstand any legal assault once we proceed,” he said in a conference call with reporters.
The United States issues the orders under the Tariff Act of 1930, which prohibits imports produced with prison or slave labor to ensure fair competition with American manufacturers and keep contaminated products out of the supply chain. Enforcement has increased since the law was enforced in 2016 under President Barack Obama.
Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan said that US companies must exercise “extreme diligence” when acquiring goods from abroad, especially from China and other places with a history of using forced labor. American consumers can do their part by demanding information on how products are made.
“We can use our economic power to tell companies that we will not sit idly by and allow foreign companies to prey on vulnerable workers while harming American companies that respect human rights and the rule of law,” Morgan said. In the call.
The facility was identified as the Lop County No. 4 Vocational Skills Education and Training Center in Xinjiang, where CBP says it has information that “reasonably indicates” the use of prison labor to make hair products.
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