Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act

The Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act was passed as Title X of the Corporate Governance Improvement and Investor Protection Act, also known as the ESG Disclosure Simplification Act (H.R. 1187). It was approved in the House on June 16, 2021 and referred to the Senate.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act was originally introduced as H.R.2072 by Representative Jennifer Wexton (D) on March 18, 2021.

The legislation: 

• Requires the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to provide guidelines for issuers (companies) to create annual reports detailing their connection, if any, to forced labor in the Uyghur Region. The report must detail their use of goods or materials sourced from the Uyghur Region. It must detail whether the goods originated from forced labor camps, and the nature and extent of related commercial activity. 
• Defines “forced labor camps” to cover any facility using the “mutual pairing assistance program” of government subsidies, convict labor, or forced labor. 
• Requires that all such reports be public. 
• Requires the SEC to conduct an annual assessment of issuer compliance and issue a report on said compliance. 
• Requires the Government and Accountability Office (GAO) to report periodically on the success of SEC oversight of companies. 
• Shall be repealed eight years after enactment or when the President submits a determination to Congress that the People’s Republic of China has ended mass internment, forced labor, and any other gross violations of human rights committed against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz.