ISTANBUL

The US government added new products on Tuesday to its import restriction list from China to prevent the importation of goods mined, produced, or manufactured in the country using "forced labor," it announced.

Steel, copper, lithium, caustic soda, and red dates were added by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as high-priority sectors for enforcement under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which restricts Chinese goods made with "forced labor" from entering the US, referring to the Muslim minority Uyghurs in northwestern China.

“America has a moral, economic, and national security duty to eradicate threats that endanger our nation’s prosperity, including unfair trade practices that disadvantage the American people and stifle our economic growth. The Trump administration is taking action,” Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, said in a statement.

“The use of slave labor is repulsive and we will hold Chinese companies accountable for abuses and eliminate threats its forced labor practices pose to our prosperity," he added.

The DHS emphasized that ending forced labor is an economic and national security imperative for the US.

"For almost 100 years, US law has prohibited the importation of goods mined, produced or manufactured in whole or in part with forced labor, recognizing not only the humanitarian concerns of allowing parties to profit from the suffering of others, but the threat to domestic producers competing with foreign goods produced at an unfair advantage," the DHS said.