The US Congress has approved a bill aimed at preventing goods suspected of being made with forced labour from entering the US.

The bill, which refers specifically to the Uyghur region of China, effectively bans the import of goods from the region, unless there is “clear and convincing evidence” that they were not produced using forced labour.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, as the bill is formally known, now heads to the desk of President Joe Biden to be signed into law.

Opposition from firms

The bill had been criticised by some multinational companies that do business in the area – including Coca-Cola, Nike and Apple.

Last week, a people’s tribunal in Britain concluded that China had committed genocide by forcibly reducing the birth rate of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

The Uyghur Tribunal, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC (pictured), said that, while there was “no evidence of organised mass killings”, it was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that China, "by the imposition of measures to prevent births, intended to destroy a significant part of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as such, has committed genocide”.