The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee is set to adopt a recommendation urging CBP to allow the use of foreign-trade zones for merchandise detained under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, after an August policy change by the agency barred the practice (see 2308030062).
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, with importers bearing the burden of proof, is the No. 1 forced labor compliance issue, panelists said, outpacing disclosure and due diligence laws in other countries around the world.
While the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and other factors have led to uncertainty and a "more complex risk environment" for imports, some companies have found strategies to "effectively navigate" this environment, law firm Bradley said in a new blog post. Some of those strategies included being "proactive" in engaging their original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), in developing "internal protocols" to monitor their supply chains, in incorporating "traceability audits," in finding "backup sourcing" and in shifting risk of "non-performance" to "downstream parties" or OEMs, Bradley said.
Allegations that Diesel Canada, Hugo Boss Canada and Walmart Canada purchase garments that were made in part with Uyghur forced labor -- complaints that rely on Australian Strategic Policy Institute reporting in 2020 and Sheffield Hallam University reports -- will progress to a fact-finding investigation after the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) found that the companies' responses weren't satisfactory.
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CBP now plans on deploying its automation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act detention process in January, according to the agency’s most recent ACE development and deployment schedule, released Aug. 30. The entry for “Automation of CBP Form 6051D for Detentions of Cargo Filed in ACE, including Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Detentions” had previously been listed with a deployment date as TBD, after CBP delayed the deployment this past May (see 2305090071). CBP has said the capability would create an automated process for UFLPA admissibility reviews and exception requests.
Market and geopolitical risk analysts said everything has gone wrong, undermining supply chain reliability over the last several years, and businesses are creating redundancy but are still anxious about the additional costs that entails.