US Adds Steel, Copper, Lithium to High-Priority List Under Uyghur Forced Labor Law

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Aug 21, 2025 - 10:02 Updated: Aug 21, 2025 - 00:23
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US Adds Steel, Copper, Lithium to High-Priority List Under Uyghur Forced Labor Law
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington on Aug. 12, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The United States will add steel, copper, lithium, and two other products to its import restriction list under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Aug. 19.

DHS said it was also adding caustic soda and red dates to its high-priority list for enforcing the UFLPA, which bans the import of products made with forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been committing human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, according to human rights groups and lawmakers.
“The use of slave labor is repulsive and we will hold Chinese companies accountable for abuses and eliminate threats its forced labor practices pose to our prosperity,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.

To date, there are 144 entities listed on the UFLPA Entity List that have been accused of using forced labor of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region, according to the statement.

DHS stated that as of Aug. 1, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had blocked more than 16,700 imports valued at nearly $3.7 billion to examine whether they are prohibited under the UFLPA, of which more than 10,000 shipments were denied entry.

“America has a moral, economic, and national security duty to eradicate threats that endanger our nation’s prosperity, including unfair trade practices that disadvantage the American people and stifle our economic growth,” Noem stated. “The Trump administration is taking action.”

The department also released its update to the UFLPA enforcement strategy, underscoring the Trump administration’s efforts to block the entry of Chinese goods made with forced labor into the United States.

According to the strategy report, the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force listed high-priority sectors to provide importers with transparency and allow businesses to scrutinize supply chains involving products in those sectors.

“Ending forced labor is an economic and national security imperative for the United States,” Christopher Pratt, senior DHS official performing the duties of the undersecretary for strategy, policy, and plans, stated in the report.

Pratt said that cracking down on imports made with forced labor helps protect compliant U.S. and international manufacturers from “unfair competition” while also promoting American businesses and industries.

Under the UFLPA, businesses are banned from importing products produced wholly or in part in Xinjiang, unless they can provide “clear and convincing evidence” that no forced labor was used in producing the imported goods, according to the DHS website.
The United States has described the detention of more than 1 million Uyghur and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang as a genocide, and both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration have imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for suppression in Xinjiang.
In March, the State Department imposed visa restrictions on current and former Thai officials involved in the deportation of 40 Uyghurs from Thailand to China on Feb. 27.

Eva Fu and Dorothy Li contributed to this report.

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