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ARTICLE · 25 NOVEMBER 2022

Regulation of products made with forced labour: keeping pace with global developments

Corrs Chambers Westgarth
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Australian businesses will need to develop, implement and improve human rights due diligence and supply chain mapping.

AustraliaGovernment, Public Sector
Phoebe Wynn-Pope
Phoebe Wynn-Pope
Kate Gill-Herdman
Kate Gill-Herdman
Eloise O'Brien
Eloise O'Brien
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Recent developments in the US and EU relating to the regulation of products deemed to have been made with forced labour indicate a global shift towards enhanced and even mandatory supply chain disclosures, underpinned by human rights due diligence.

On 21 June 2022, the US Government enacted the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which creates a rebuttable presumption goods mined, produced, or manufactured, in whole or in part, in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang), or by entities in China identified as being linked to forced labour, are prohibited from importation into the US under Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930. The Tariff Act empowers the US Customs and Border Protection to issue Withhold Release Orders (WROs) and make findings which preclude goods found to have been produced in whole or in part in a foreign jurisdiction using forced labour from entering the US.

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