Sanctions Based Business and Human Rights Practices From the United States--From Export Controls, to Voluntary Conduct Codes, to Import Sanctions

 

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Every state appears to have embraced a distinctive approach to the embedding of human rights and sustainability considerations in economic activities.  For the Untied States, the embedding of such human rights and sustainability concerns is being undertaken by merging its sensibilities with a politics driven sanctions regime. The sanctions regime has, since 2021 also been tied to the efforts to consolidate and solidify the construction of a liberal democratic collective through the Summits for Democracy sponsored by the United States and its allies.

The United States continues to put human rights at the center of our foreign policy. The Export Controls and Human Rights Initiative – launched at the first Summit for Democracy as part of the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal – is a multilateral effort intended to counter state and non-state actors’ misuse of goods and technology that violate human rights. During the Year of Action following the first Summit, the United States led an effort to establish a voluntary, nonbinding written code of conduct outlining political commitments by Subscribing States to apply export control tools to prevent the proliferation of goods, software, and technologies that enable serious human rights abuses. (Export Controls and Human Rights Initiative Code of Conduct Released at the Summit for Democracy).

 That sanctions driven incorporation of human rights in economic activity has been augmented by other sanctions regimes.  One of the most well known is that targeting Chinese policy in Xinjiang. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). 

It establishes a rebuttable presumption that the importation of any goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China, or produced by certain entities, is prohibited by Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 and that such goods, wares, articles, and merchandise are not entitled to entry to the United States. (Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA).  )

Monitoring of action under UFLPA has become an especial point of focus of the Congressional Executive Committee on China. To that end CECC has recently announced a program on the issue: Implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and the Impact on Global Supply Chains.   The announcement follows below. The event takes place 18 April 2023. 

The hearing will be live streamed on the CECC’s YouTube channel.

 

Implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and the Impact on Global Supply Chains

 

April 18, 2023

10:00am-12:00pm

2360 Rayburn House Office Building

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) is the most momentous piece of China legislation passed by the Congress in over two decades. If enforced as intended, UFLPA imposes significant costs on the People’s Republic of China for its campaign of genocide against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities and takes steps to prevent companies from benefiting from the use of forced labor in their supply chains. The task assigned to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the multi-agency Forced Labor Enforcement Taskforce (FLETF) is daunting and aggressive enforcement is the key to UFLPA’s effectiveness. 

Almost a year and a half after the legislation was signed into law, this hearing will seek to determine what has gone well, what has not gone as planned, and where enforcement can be enhanced to achieve the UFLPA’s goals and ensure that the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) is no longer the global epicenter of forced labor. In addition, the hearing will also explore whether brands, retailers, and importers – in such diverse sectors as apparel, solar panels, agriculture, electronics, aluminum, and auto parts –  continue to be party to the heinous abuses occurring in the XUAR. We will hear from specialists in labor trafficking, supply chain mapping, and the global tracking of forced labor to determine the need for further congressional oversight and action. 

The hearing will be livestreamed on the CECC’s YouTube channel.

WITNESSES:

Anasuya Syam, Human Rights and Trade Policy Director, Human Trafficking Legal Center

Laura Murphy, Professor of Human Rights and Contemporary Slavery, Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice, Sheffield Hallam University

Kit Conklin, Nonresident Senior Fellow, GeoTech Center, Atlantic Council

Elfidar Iltebir, President, Uyghur American Association