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U.S.’s new Uyghur act goes into effect
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- A bill
to prohibit products made with forced labor in Xinjiang from the U.S. market goes into effect today. The bill (H.R.6256), known as the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), will raise the standards of supply chain compliance for Chinese exports and grant the U.S. government more discretion in restricting products from China. It could also lead to the forced publication of business secrets.
- Although a rare bipartisan consensus in a divided Congress, the Uyghur legislation did not escape partisanship. Rep. James P. McGovern (D-MA) first introduced a UFLPA (H.R.6210) in March 2020. The bill was passed in the House by a 406 - 3 vote in September 2020. But it failed to be taken up by the Senate before the end of the 116th Congress (2019-2020). McGovern reintroduced the bill (H.R.1155) in February 2021, and the House, again, passed the bill overwhelmingly in December 2021. In July 2021, the Senate passed a namesake bill (S.65) with similar content introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). However, Rubio’s bill, which did not include
a House version’s requirement that public companies report their business operations in China, was held at the House desk.
- McGovern was only able to present the final bill after reaching an agreement
with Rubio in December 2021. McGovern compromised by removing the reporting requirement, while Rubio agreed to cut the compliance period of affected companies from 300 days to 180 days. President Joe Biden signed the legislation into law on December 23, only nine days after the agreement.
- However, the lengthy discussions in the U.S. Congress allowed China more time for preparation. China issued the Provisions Unreliable Entity List (UEL) (《不可靠实体清单规定》) in September 2020 and promulgated an anti-sanctions law
(《反外国制裁法》) in July 2021 in response to the increasing hostility from the U.S. Companies, on the other hand, face more challenges to be compliant with regulations by both countries.
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