An Addendum to the 2021 Updated Xinjiang Supply Chain Business Advisory calls attention to the China’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and the evidence of widespread use of forced labor there.
The addendum urges businesses and individuals to continue to undertake appropriate human rights due diligence measures to identify potential supply chain links to entities operating in Xinjiang, entities linked to Xinjiang (e.g., through the pairing program, Xinjiang supply chain inputs, or the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC)), entities included in the UFLPA Entity List, or entities using the labor of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, or members of other persecuted groups from Xinjiang.
The addendum focuses on potential supply chain exposure from entities engaged in human rights abuses through the sourcing of goods from Xinjiang, or from entities elsewhere in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) connected to the use of forced labor of individuals from Xinjiang, including entities employing Uyghurs through state-sponsored “poverty alleviation” programs, or from entities outside of the PRC that source inputs from Xinjiang.
The Addendum highlights the following:
On July 13, 2021, the U.S. Department of State, alongside the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and the U.S. Department of Labor issued an updated Xinjiang Supply Chain Business Advisory to highlight the heightened risks for businesses with supply chain and investment links to Xinjiang, given the entities complicit in forced labor and other human rights abuses there and throughout China. This updates the original Xinjiang Supply Chain Business Advisory issued by U.S. government agencies on July 1, 2020.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) government continues its horrific abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang) and elsewhere in China, targeting Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and ethnic Kyrgyz who are predominantly Muslim, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups. These abuses include widespread, state-sponsored forced labor and intrusive surveillance, forced population control measures and separation of children from families, mass detention, and other human rights abuses amidst ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity. Given the severity and extent of these abuses, businesses and individuals that do not exit supply chains, ventures, and/or investments connected to Xinjiang could run a high risk of violating U.S. law.
The updated advisory highlights:
The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) maintains a list of goods and their source countries which it has reason to believe are produced by child labor or forced labor in violation of international standards, as required under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2005 and subsequent reauthorizations.
The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2018 expanded this mandate to require the TVPRA List to also include, "to the extent practicable, goods that are produced with inputs that are produced with forced labor or child labor."
DOL’s Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking is identifying downstream products containing goods that ILAB has reason to believe are produced with forced labor or child labor for inclusion on the List. [Review DOL Lists]
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