Correspondence
Email sent to the management of Pesca Rich USA.
The email said: "I’m contacting you in light of our latest investigation which concerns the use of forced labor in China’s food processing industry, and a link we’ve discovered between a company engaged in such practices and your supply chain.
Pesca Rich USA Inc.’s supplier Rizhao Rongxing Food Co. Ltd. is a Rongsense Group company. The Rongsense Group has received multiple groups of persons from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China under the state-imposed labor transfer program.
The United Nations, human rights organizations and academic experts agree that since 2018, the Chinese government has systematically subjected Xinjiang’s predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities to forced labor across the country via state-sanctioned employment schemes which use coercive methods in worker enrollment and obstruct freedom to leave employment. The U.S. has prohibited the importation of goods produced from state-imposed forced labor.
Does Pesca Rich USA Inc. have any comment or statement to make in light of the above information? Please respond to this email by close of business June 16, 2023."
Eriko Tsuji of Pesca Rich relied, saying: "We were quite shocked to read your email and immediately contacted Rizhao Rongxing Food Co. Ltd. They responded to us, "Our company is a legal enterprise because we strictly abide by the labor law and other laws, regulations, and rules of the People's Republic of China. There's absolutely no forced labor happening in our company". We believe Rongxing is honest about this, but if you have any more questions, please contact the company directly."
The Outlaw Ocean Project replied: "Thank you very much for your reply and for sharing the response you received from Rizhao Rongxing.
While Rizhao Rongxing says it is in compliance with Chinese law, Pesca Rich USA is operating in the U.S. and is subject to U.S. law. The Tariff Act of 1930 prohibited the importation of merchandise produced or manufactured, wholly or in part, in any foreign country by forced labor. Since 2018, the United States government has considered the Chinese government to be systematically subjecting people from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to forced labor.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act, signed into law in December 2021, has strengthened this into a general presumption that goods produced in part or in full in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are the product of forced labor and cannot be imported to the United States unless an importer can provide clear evidence the imports were produced without the use of forced labor. This presumption also applies to goods made by Uyghurs transferred out of Xinjiang via ‘labor-transfer’ programs.
Have you asked Rizhao Rongxing to clarify whether any workers at the factory have been deployed from Xinjiang via a government labor transfer program?"