In the wake of rising international condemnation over the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang), the US government is ramping up its forced labor enforcement actions, most recently by issuing a new withhold release order (WRO) on June 23 that will impact the solar industry and by adding five new companies with ties to Xinjiang on the Department of Commerce’s (DOC) Entity List.
These actions follow US Customs and Border Protection’s (Customs or CBP) escalating enforcement efforts against forced labor in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), specifically in the Xinjiang region. Earlier this year, CBP issued an expansive region-wide WRO against all cotton and tomato products produced in Xinjiang. In May 2021, CBP reported that in FY 2021 the agency had targeted $765 million of goods and detained 623 shipments suspected of forced labor concerns. Reports indicate that CBP is now detaining approximately 100 shipments a week, and that number is expected to rise. Increased enforcement is aligned with President Biden’s recent commitment with other G7 leaders to take action against forced labor in global supply chains.
