Two U.S. Congress members urged the State Department on Wednesday (April 17th) to step up diplomatic efforts to ensure that companies benefiting from forced labor of Uighur people in China are prevented from entering global markets.
As the Chinese Communist Party has been accused of violating the human rights of Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, the United States has been working to combat companies believed to be involved in or enabling these atrocities.
According to Axios, the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on China are now calling on the U.S. to involve allies in these efforts.
Last month, the European Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement to ban the import of products made from forced labor into the EU market.
However, Chairman of the China Task Force, Republican Representative Mike Gallagher from Wisconsin, and the chief Democratic member of the committee, Federal Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois, wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday that the committee has learned that certain EU members are considering voting against the ban.
If the ban does not pass, it would mean that products produced under Chinese-supported “forced labor projects” would continue to enter the European market without restrictions.
They added that these products are also more likely to enter the U.S. through Europe.
“Therefore, we urge the State Department to strengthen and enhance its global diplomatic efforts to address forced labor projects supported by the Chinese government,” the two lawmakers wrote, emphasizing that initial efforts should “prioritize engagement” with EU partners including Germany and Italy.
The legislators requested the State Department to respond to a series of questions regarding their efforts to engage with allies on this issue by April 30th.
In December 2021, the U.S. passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which prohibits the import of all products from Xinjiang unless companies can prove with “clear and convincing evidence” that these products are not made with forced labor.
Last year, amid reports that products from Xinjiang were still entering the U.S., a bipartisan group of lawmakers called for increased transparency in the enforcement of the UFLPA.
In January 2021, the Trump administration declared that China’s widespread detention, forced labor, and forced sterilization of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang amounted to genocide.