Trump has a China trade war weapon he hasn’t picked up

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President Trump has access to a powerful tool that isn’t tariffs for his trade war with China, but it isn’t clear whether China hawks will convince him to unleash it. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a U.S.

law targeting forced labor that the Biden administration began enforcing in 2022, bars imports of almost all goods linked to Xinjiang, an expansive region in the west of China that is a major source of cotton, solar-panel components and minerals. The law is in effect, but how it is put into practice is open to interpretation and subject to funding, leaving room for the Trump administration to increase enforcement. The Biden administration blocked, at least temporarily, more than $3.5 billion in imports using the law and then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas took a personal interest in expanding what amounts to a ban list of companies found to have ties to forced labor.

Volkswagen saw thousands of its vehicles held up at U.S. ports after disclosing they had included parts made by a banned company. “I know this issue is a priority of the president, and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) will also have lots of support in Congress for vigorous UFLPA enforcement," said Rep.

Chris Smith (R., N.J.), co-chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a human-rights watchdog. But the administration is also a big tent when it comes to China, with space for hawks like Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well as for Elon Musk, who has deep commercial ties to the country, making it difficult to predict how enforcement might unfold. The value of shipments U.S.