Companies anxious over looming Xinjiang import ban, U.S. and China trade threats over Taiwan at Singapore security summit & Xi bans CCP grumbling -- China Boss News 6.13.22
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Companies anxious over looming Xinjiang import ban
“The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which President Joe Biden signed into law in December, is set to take effect June 21,” Voice of America reported. “Under the law, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will treat any goods that are made in Xinjiang, either wholly or in part, as the product of forced labor unless the importer can show ‘clear and convincing evidence’ that they are not,” news staff said.
VOA:
The Biden administration has given no indication that it would consider seeing the law go unenforced. On Wednesday, in a webinar about the new law, a Customs and Border Protection official said, "The expectation is that we will be ready to implement the Uyghur Act on June 21, and that we have the resources."
Doug Barry, a vice president with the U.S.-China Business Council, told VOA that “U.S. companies that do business in China are concerned about the looming implementation of the UFLPA.”
Barry, VOA:
"The specifics of what must be proven and how have not been announced, leaving American companies to worry that cargo may be seized for unspecified reasons," he said. "Companies insist that they take every reasonable action to ensure supply chains don't involve forced labor. The worry is that the law is so broad that it can apply to many categories of goods regardless of proximity to Xinjiang."
The uncertainty is made worse by what Barry described as the "amped-up rhetoric" coming from both Washington and Beijing.
"In the absence of official dialogue, [it] makes it difficult to put a floor under the downward trajectory of the bilateral relationship."
He Weiwen, a former commercial counselor at Chinese diplomatic missions in New York and San Francisco, told Bloomberg that “views of the two parties” as to the forced labor issue “are far apart and unlikely to be bridged in the foreseeable future, and that the issue “will become an important factor affecting bilateral economic ties for years to come.”
Some analysts think tensions will worsen. Bloomberg staff noted that “[t]he White House is also weighing unprecedented financial sanctions on Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., which makes surveillance systems, for linkages to alleged human-rights abuses by the Xinjiang government.” It’s a decision “[t]hat could open the door for similar penalties that could cut off other major Chinese companies from the global financial system,” they said.
Bloomberg:
That may just be the start. Since workers and goods from Xinjiang flow across the country, it’s nearly impossible to determine what products are made in the rest of China using what the US deems as forced labor — raising the prospect that the American import ban could eventually be extended to other regions. The Biden administration appears to have given up on trade talks and is now focused on reducing its dependence on China — a position that has bipartisan support in Washington, where both parties are increasingly skeptical of changing the Chinese Communist Party’s behavior through economic engagement.
For the VOA’s report, US Prepares to Block Most Imports Tied to China's Xinjiang Province, click here. For Bloomberg’s analysis, The Dispute Over Forced Labor Is Redefining the Entire US-China Relationship, click here.
For guidance on the new customs rules, check out this National Law Review update, Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Is Coming… Are You Ready? CBP Issues Hints at the Wave of Enforcement To Come.
Law and International Xi
European Parliament calls for new sanctions on China for “human rights breaches”
In a strongly worded statement, the European Parliament on Thursday denounced China's "repression of the Uyghur community and other ethnic Turkic people in the Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang,” and “call[ed] upon the EU and its member states to take all necessary steps to end these atrocities, including the adoption of additional sanctions targeting Chinese high-ranking officials identified in the Xinjiang police files and the suspension of the extradition treaties with China and Hong Kong.”
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