WASHINGTON D.C. – Congressman Tony Gonzales (TX-23) cosponsored Congressman Jim McGovern’s (MA-02) Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (H.R. 1155). This legislation would ensure that products made with forced labor in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) do not enter the U.S. Market. Read the full text of the bill here.

This bill comes in response to an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Hui, and other predominately Muslim ethnic minorities being arbitrarily detained in a system of extrajudicial mass internment camps where they are subjected to forced labor, torture, and political indoctrination. 

“It’s long overdue that we hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for the atrocious human rights violations they have subjected the Uyghur community to,” said Congressman Gonzales. “The U.S. must not compromise our morals by turning a blind eye to these horrific acts. This common-sense bipartisan bill is a step in the right direction, ensuring products made from forced labor are not on American store shelves.”

This bill would:

• Prohibit all imports from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China unless the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection can certify that the goods being imported to the U.S. are not produced, either wholly or in part, with forced labor and the Commissioner submits to Congress a report outlining such a determination; 
• Authorize the President to apply targeted sanctions on anyone responsible for the labor trafficking of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities;
• Require financial disclosures from U.S. publicly traded businesses about their engagement with Chinese companies and other entities engaged in mass surveillance, mass interment, forced labor and other serious human rights abuses in the XUAR;
• Directs the Secretary of State to submit to Congress a public determination whether the practice of forced labor or other human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the XUAR constitute crimes against humanity or genocide, and directs the Secretary to develop a diplomatic strategy to address forced labor in the XUAR; and
• Requires a strategy report from the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (established by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act) and regular updates on the steps taken to enforce the import prohibition on forced labor made goods from the XUAR.