U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers inspect shipment of hair products from China at the port of New York/Newark on July 1, 2020. (CBP)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed on Feb. 18 that more goods produced by forced labor were captured at the border in January than were detected in the previous two Januarys combined,
Southeast Asian countries have been the top three sources of forced labor products since 2022, when the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act went into effect. The law bans the importation of goods made by dozens of Chinese companies and products made from cotton grown in China’s Xinjiang province. While Southeast Asian countries lead in the monetary value of the goods seized, goods from China make up the greatest volume.
CBP’s latest monthly figures on forced labor show that Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand, in that order, have been the main source of shipments scrutinized by border patrol over the last three years. Malaysia accounted for 42 percent of the value of all shipments inspected at U.S. ports of entry. CBP estimates the value of the intercepted Malaysian shipments at $1.4 billion.
The Uyghur Forced Labor law was signed by former President Joe Biden in 2021, and went into effect in July, 2022. The law has made it almost impossible to import goods from companies operating in Xinjiang, the far Western Chinese province that is home to the Uyghur ethnic group–which is severely persecuted by China’s communist regime.
Washington argues that China uses prison labor and forced labor practices in Xinjiang. As a result, dozens of Chinese companies have been placed on a banned entity list managed by the Department of Homeland Security. Their products are deemed to have been produced using forced labor–unless the importer can prove the goods were produced under normal Chinese labor standards.
In order to conceal the origin of their goods, the banned Chinese entities seek to transship goods through the ports of China’s southern neighbors. Alternatively, some Southeast Asian manufacturers use supplies sourced from companies on the DHS’s Entity List. No Southeast Asian company is on the list, however.
Some of the banned Chinese companies include Hoshine Silicon Industry, a large supplier of materials used in making solar panels, and Donghai JA Solar Technology Company, a subsidiary of popular Chinese solar giant JA Solar.
China Leads ‘Forced Labor’ Shipments
Some 3,979 ‘Made in China’ goods shipments worth $24.6 million were stopped at U.S. ports of entry in January, such that China made up 38 percent of total captures for the month. Most of the shipments were subsequently denied entry, according to CBP. Those that were not denied entry were allowed to progress to their final U.S. destination.
Some of the shipments denied include automotive goods and apparel.
Apparel has been a sticking point for the Uyghur Forced Labor law because all cotton sourced from Xinjiang is banned, which includes clothes made from that cotton. But not every CBP facility at each port of entry is equipped with the specialized equipment needed to check for Xinjiang cotton DNA, nor is running isotopic tests on cotton fabrics feasible given the millions of small packages of clothing coming into the United States from China each day.
All told, CBP says it stopped 1,986 shipments valued at more than $13 million from entering the country under the Uyghur Forced Labor guidance last month–a massive increase from the same period in previous years.
In January 2024, CBP stopped only 424 shipments, many of which were subsequently released into the country. Only 282 shipments were intercepted in January 2023.
The higher numbers of forced labor products captured at the border were due to agents spending less time on immigration control, said Pete Flores, CBP’s acting commissioner.
“The reduction in illegal aliens attempting to make entry into the U.S., compounded by a significant increase in repatriations, means that more officers and agents are now able to conduct the enforcement duties that make our border more secure and our country safer,” Flores said in the statement.
