International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Recent additions to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List (see 2309250033) mark a change in that they include companies that have not previously been on government denied party lists, and the range of commodities being looked at for forced labor violations is being expanded, Ethan Woolley of compliance risk advisory firm Kharon said during a recent webinar.
Companies should review existing and prospective agreements for potential liability under China's anti-foreign sanctions law, Evan Chuck of Crowell & Moring advised during a Practising Law Institute webinar on Sept. 26.
Ten members of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, led by Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., are questioning the proportion of electronics shipments that have been released under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), after importers provided CBP with clear and convincing evidence that their supply chains had no Xinjiang links.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
China's Ministry of Commerce said the recent U.S. decision to add three Chinese entities to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List (see 2309260035) "has no factual basis and lacks transparency," according to an unofficial translation. Dubbing the move a "typical act of economic bullying," the ministry said the additions suppress Chinese firms and seriously distort the facts surrounding the situation in the Xinjiang region. It said there is no forced labor in Xinjiang, saying the additions were made solely in the name of undermining Xinjiang's prosperity and stability. "China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises," the ministry said.
Moving manufacturing from China to another Asian country is not the way to "get ahead of the game" in avoiding forced labor detentions, said Amanda Levitt, a Sandler Travis lawyer, while speaking during a virtual Sourcemap conference on supply chain transparency. Levitt said that tracing falls apart for most firms at the Tier 2 level, and that's not enough. Many of the items identified by nongovernmental organizations as being produced with Uyghur forced labor -- cotton, aluminum, PVC -- are raw materials much deeper than tier 2.
In a report that the State Department says highlights "the ongoing, widespread, and pervasive [state-sponsored forced labor] risks" in Xinjiang supply chains, the administration mostly reviewed developments in the last year -- such as CBP guidance on how to write summaries for applicability reviews, or non-governmental organizations' papers identifying sectors with links to Xinjiang.
CBP in August identified 320 shipments valued at more than $68 million for further examination based on the suspected use of forced labor, including goods subject to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and withhold release orders, the agency said in its most recent operational statistics update. (CBP told us the update erroneously says the 320 shipments were the July count.) That's down from July, when CBP identified a total of 388 shipments valued at more than $107 million (see 2308210019). Also in August, CBP seized 1,710 shipments that contained counterfeit goods valued at more than $177 million, the agency said.