AUGUST 2025
Assessing the Impact
of the Uyghur Forced
Labor Prevention Act
After Three Years
By Laura T. Murphy and Charlotte Tate
Introduction
In a rare near-unanimous vote, the U.S. Congress passed the landmark Uyghur Forced Labor
Prevention Act (UFLPA) in December 2021. Since coming into force in June 2022, the law has banned
the import of all goods made in whole or in part in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China
(XUAR). Congress passed this law because it found credible evidence to suggest that the government
of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been pursuing a deliberate and systematic program of
state-imposed forced labor in the region, a violation of international human rights law.
The Uyghur people and other Turkic and Muslim-majority groups in the XUAR continue to face
egregious human rights abuses that may amount to crimes against humanity. Forced labor in the
region remains widespread and systematic, impacting a multitude of industries, including apparel,
automotive, critical minerals, agriculture, and solar enery.
The pervasive use of forced labor in the region, paired with practically no enforcement of
environmental standards and massive subsidies for companies that operate there, has resulted in
articially deated prices for goods and an unfair playing eld for U.S. and international companies.
The UFLPA is designed to address both the human rights issues in the region and the trade inequities
created by them.
The law reects a wider evolution in U.S. policymaking on forced labor. For nearly a century, the
Tari Act of 1930 has banned the import of goods made with forced labor from entering into the
