This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now licensed for reprint.
The exports from two more Chinese companies that are suspected of employing Tamils for forced labour have been banned in the US, bringing the total number of institutions on , the blacklist, to 75.
The Department of Homeland Security’s statement on Wednesday is the most recent under the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.  ,
The department’s affirmation stated in a statement that the UFLPA aims to end forced labour and keep China responsible for its murder and crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other minority groups in the far northern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Starting Oct. 3, products produced by Baowu Group Xinjiang Bayi Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. and Changzhou Guanghui Food Ingredients Co., Ltd. may become prohibited from entering the United States, it said.
This is the first day a chipmaker and producer of aspartame, an artificial sweetener, have been added to the UFLPA Entity List, the ministry said. Various companies on the list include those making clothing, plastics, chemicals, home appliances.
De’loophole’ de minimis
The action was taken in response to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s pledge in a statement at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday that Congress will proceed to “take on Chinese firms that use forced labour and sidestep taxes through the de minimis different.”
Last month, President Joe Biden , proposed an administrative order , that may restrict the number of imports from China that can prevent customs checks under the “de minimis” provision that reviewers have said is a “loophole” allowing products made with Muslim prisoner work to get sold to Americans.
De minimis deduction allows imports of items less than$ 800 to avoid taxes and many of the customs restrictions that are customary when they are sold into the US.  ,
The ban would have an impact on a sizable number of goods, including the majority of fabric, including the clothing Temu and Shein, two fast-fashion companies from China, sell directly to Americans.
One of the two banned businesses, Baowu Group Xinjiang Bayi Iron and Steel Co., based in Urumqi, is engaged in copper ore mine and steel production. Its primary products include steel, hot-rolled coils, and method and heavy metal plates, according to the DHS speech.  ,
” The United States government has reasonable cause to believe, based on specific and articulable knowledge, that Xinjiang Bayi works with the state of the XUAR to attract, travel, transfer, harbor, or get Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, or members of other persecuted groups out of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region”, the statement said.
The other company, Changzhou Guanghui Food Ingredients Co., headquartered in Jiangsu, China, is believed to use ingredients sourced out of XUAR, it said.
More needs to be done, according to Ilshat Hassan Kokbore, deputy executive chairman of the World Uyghur Congress advocacy group.
We must do more, he said, to stop China’s government from dumping its forced labor products into the United States.  ,
By enforcing the UFLPA Act, he claimed,” The DHS has done a great job in preventing the Uyghur forced labor products from entering the United States.” ” Adding two more Chinese companies to the list sends a clear message to the PRC that the United States wo n’t tolerate human rights violations.”