A U.S. ban on imports from China’s Xinjiang region took effect on Tuesday.

US authorities increased their powers to block the import of goods linked to forced labour in China.

President Joe Biden signed into law the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention in December 2021.

The law includes a ‘rebuttable presumption’ that all goods from Xinjiang, where Chinese authorities established detention camps for Uighurs and other Muslim groups, are made with forced labour, and bars their import unless it can be proven otherwise.

Xinjiang region in northwest China is a major cotton producer that also supplies much of the world’s materials for solar panels.

China denies abuses in Xinjiang, and says the law ‘slanders’ the country’s human rights situation.

Aljazeera.