Robert Silvers, undersecretary for policy at the US Department of Homeland Security and chair on the Forced Labour Enforcement Task Force tells USFIA conference delegates how the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is being enforced, 17 months after it came into effect.
Under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, any company importing goods into the US from the Xinjiang region of China, including apparel, must certify that those items were not produced using forced labour at any point or face penalties.
Silvers says the law “really affected a sea change” in the way that the US government approaches the enforcement of forced labour legislation. “The burden was really put on importers, to substantiate the provenance of the products that they want to bring in,” he explained.
Under the 2022 law, the onus is now on importers to know their supply chains and to practice proper due diligence. Silvers says the taskforce has been “speedy, strong and surgical” in its implementation of the law, after US Congress gave the department just six months to enforce the new rules.
“Some of this is old to us – we’ve been enforcing forced labour laws for a century or so,” Silvers explains. “But some of it is quite new and emergent too, but there is no question that this issue has elevated importance everywhere.”
Forced labour laws are also coming into effect outside of the US. Canada’s Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act will come into effect on 1 January 2024...
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