Forced Labor/U.K. Modern Slavery Act

This is an update to our December 22, 2021 post on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.

On December 23, 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). This action by President Biden comes a week after the law passed both chambers of Congress. After stalling in the Senate

On December 7, 2021, the Senate confirmed Tucson, Arizona police chief Chris Magnus as the next U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner with a vote of 50-47 in favor of Magnus. Magnus is CBP’s first Senate-confirmed leader since 2019 – with his predecessor Mark Morgan serving until January 2021 and Troy Miller currently serving

On December 8, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill called the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (with a 428-1 vote) that bans the importation of goods produced using forced labor by Uyghers and other minority Muslim populations in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. A similar measure has already passed in the

On October 20 and October 21, 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a Withhold Release Order (WRO) against disposable gloves from Malaysian company Supermax Corporation BHD and its three wholly owned subsidiaries as well as a separate WRO against tomatoes produced by Mexican farms Agropecuarios Tom S.A. de C.V., Horticola S.A de C.V.,

On July 26, 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) modified its July 1998 Withhold Release Order (WRO) that originally prevented the importation of carpet and hand-knotted wool products from seven Nepalese companies. Specifically, CBP modified the WRO so that carpet and hand-knotted wool products from Annapurna Carpet Industries Pvt. Ltd. (Annapurna Carpet) would be

On June 30, 2021, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued its first-ever Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism National Priorities (the “Priorities”). FinCEN was required to do this by the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (“AMLA”), enacted on January 1, 2021, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021. FinCEN

On July 9, 2021, The Department of Commerce (DOC) determined that 23 Chinese companies took actions contrary to the foreign policy interests of the United States and were added to the Entities List. The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) noted that it “publishes the names of certain foreign persons – including businesses, research institutions,

On June 24, 2021, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added five Chinese entities to the Entity List for partaking in the forced labor of Muslim minority groups from Xinjiang, an autonomous territory in northwest China. This action by the BIS – which specifically targets the five entities’ ability to access

On June 24, 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a Withhold Release Order (WRO) against Hoshine Silicon Industry Co. Ltd. – a silica manufacturing company located in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) – and its subsidiaries on the basis of forced labor in the entity’s manufacturing practices. The WRO instructs CBP personnel

On June 13, 2021, leaders from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Japan, France, Germany, and Italy (the G7) — announced their joint actions to support and strengthen free and fair trade. The joint actions emphasized efforts to combat forced labor in global supply chains as well as other initiatives to review trade policies to further women’s