For U.S. importers, the hurdles for proving that their supply chains are free of forced labor are getting higher all the time.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is clamping down on forced labor in supply chains. Its latest weapon is the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, signed into law by President Biden in December of 2021. The law establishes a “rebuttable presumption” that goods originating from the Xinxiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China are not entitled to enter the U.S. — in other words, they’re guilty until proved innocent. On this episode, we speak with Suzanne Offerman, senior product manager of outbound product marketing for Thomson Reuter’s ONESOURCE Global Trade. She explains what importers must do to certify that their products sourced from China — and, for that matter, anywhere else in the world – are free of the scourge of forced labor. She also addresses the larger issue of what constitutes forced labor, and the risks that companies incur by failing to eliminate it from their supply chains — not an easy task when multiple tiers of suppliers are involved. Hosted by Bob Bowman, Editor-in-Chief of SupplyChainBrain.

This episode is sponsored by Thomson Reuters’ ONESOURCE Global Trade.

Show notes:

A report from Thomson Reuters on modern slavery in business supply chains.