Senate Passes the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act

by sam

Samuel Case, FISM News

 

On Wednesday the United States Senate passed a bill that would ban imported products from Xinjiang, China, the region in which the Chinese government is practicing genocidal behavior against ethnic Uyghur Muslims.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act was sponsored by Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and was approved by unanimous consent.

The law prohibits “the import of all goods, wares, articles, or merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured, wholly or in part, by forced labor from the People’s Republic of China and particularly any such goods, wares, articles, or merchandise produced in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.”

In a statement, Senator Rubio said “We will not turn a blind eye to the CCP’s ongoing crimes against humanity, and we will not allow corporations a free pass to profit from those horrific abuses.”

Senator Merkley described the bill as “a clear message that the United States will not be complicit in the Chinese government’s genocide of Uyghur Muslims.” He added that, “No American consumer should be inadvertently purchasing products from slave labor.”

The passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act comes as multiple federal departments updated their policies on Tuesday in regard to the “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and the growing evidence of its use of forced labor there.”

The Labor Department warned, “those that do not exit supply chains, ventures and/or investments connected to Xinjiang run a high risk of violating U.S. law.”

U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said, “Any company doing business in this region should take heed: these are reprehensible and illegal practices, and the goods produced under these conditions have no place in the U.S. economy.”

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