Is the “Forced Labor Prevention Act” A First Step Against Chinese Human Rights Abuses Or (Most Likely) Just Theater?

This past week, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, became law with President Biden’s signature. The bipartisan bill was introduced by Senator Marco Rubio (R - Fla) and Jim McGovern (D - Mass).

The new law prohibits all imports from Xinjiang “unless U.S. Customs and Border Protection certifies by clear and convincing evidence that goods were not produced with forced labor.”

Rubio was quoted as saying:

“The United States is so reliant on China that we have turned a blind eye to the slave labor that makes our clothes, our solar panels, and much more. That changes today. Our Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act will require businesses importing goods into the United States to prove that their supply chains are not tainted with slave labor. It is time to end our economic addiction to China.”

Good job, I guess. This is at least a start. Maybe. But applauding this “crackdown” on Chinese slave labor feels like applauding a drunk driver for not texting while he speeds through a school zone.

We’re not even pretending to be opposed to slave labor in China, we’re simply asking them to please try not to use their slaves on products bound for the USA.

Per co-sponsor Jeff Merkley “we can finally ensure that American consumers and businesses can buy goods without inadvertent complicity in China’s horrific human rights abuses.”

So 150-plus years after eradicating slavery in the United States, all we ask of foreign slave states is that they create a paper trail that will give cover to those who are queasy about China’s forced labor camps.

Picture this…a southern US state secedes, and then re-instates slavery in certain counties. Would any American politician or business executive tolerate trade with that state so long as labor from its slave-holding counties was excluded? Of course not. The entire state would be a pariah state. As China should be too.

By the way, the law that was just passed is redundant. The Tariff Act of 1930 already makes it illegal to import products that involve the use of forced labor.

Congress and the President just passed a law that does little more than say “we’re re-upping the existing law that we’ve already chosen not to enforce.”

How about a law that severs all trade with China unless they stop their barbaric forced labor practices?

Or how about putting the burden on CEOs? After Enron, laws were changed so that CFOs and corporate executives would go to jail for similar financial misrepresentation, even if committed without their knowledge by subordinates. How about we try something similar with regards to American imports of products made with Chinese forced labor? Make every CEO sign an annual affidavit that no forced labor was used in his company’s supply chain, with felony jail time the punishment if that is proved to be untrue.

We can divorce ourselves from our current supply chain that relies on foreign slave labor. The law that was just passed won’t do the trick, but let’s build on it and keep introducing tougher legislation until people start going to jail in America for using slave labor in China.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:52 AM

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