Harvard Law School Association of Washington, DC

Preventing Forced Labor in Xinjiang, China: Recent Developments and Future Steps

Join HLSA-DC for an insightful conversation on the recent developments in preventing forced labor in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang), China. Join in person or on Zoom.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act of 2021 (the Act) strengthens the forced labor import prohibition and aims to ensure that U.S. supply chains are free of forced labor. The Act establishes a rebuttable presumption that goods were made with forced labor if they were made, in whole or in part, in Xinjiang or by any designated entity. As a result, such goods are not entitled to entry at any port of the United States unless the importer proves no forced labor was used to produce them. Since June 2022, the U.S. government instructed the importers to review their entire supply chain entities against the designated entities list, and conduct supply chain due diligence. Based on the numbers provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in August 2022, the Act appears to have increased the overall pace of forced labor enforcement significantly, by somewhere between 3x and 7x.

The panel discussion will provide more insights on the topic, cover the risks for U.S. companies doing business connected to Xinjiang, question the effectiveness of U.S. measures, and seek to define further crucial steps in fighting the forced labor.

SPEAKERS:

• Ana Hinojosa (ALM ’10) is the President of ABH Global Trade Consulting, LLC and Former Executive Director at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Ana is a Senior Executive with decades of experience in customs enforcement, compliance and facilitation, international engagement and trade matters. She demonstrated success in working with the international trade and development industry, in the United States and globally. Ana re-engineered Forced Labor enforcement at CBP and brought about unprecedented results in collaboration and global impact.

• Rayhan Asat (LLM ’16) is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. As an international human rights lawyer, she focuses on international human rights, atrocity prevention, the rule of law, civil liberties, corporate accountability, and international law. Rayhan is the first Uyghur to graduate from Harvard Law School. Her legal and policy work centers around enforcing international human rights norms, fighting against corruption, advancing civil liberties, atrocity prevention, curtailing forced labor, and promoting corporate accountability.

• Jeanine McGuinness (JD ’92) is a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP. Jeanine concentrates in U.S. trade and investment laws applicable to cross-border transactions, focusing on U.S. economic sanctions, anti-money laundering laws, anti-boycott laws, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and transaction reviews by U.S. national security agencies. Jeanine also advises private companies on strategy, oversight and compliance with respect to environmental, social, and governance measures, including the forced labor prohibition.

MODERATOR:

Milana Karayanidi (LLM ’16) is a Special Legal Consultant at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP. Milana advises private companies on export controls and economic sanctions, including in the context of complex corporate transactions and internal investigations. Milana’s background includes doctoral research on private international law and promoting cross-border judicial and governmental cooperation at international organization.

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