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.
Importers doing due diligence on their Chinese suppliers to make sure they don’t run afoul of forced labor prohibitions need to stick with the “nuts and bolts” of supply chain information, rather than explaining why it’s needed or asking for certifications that the suppliers comply with U.S. law, both of which could be illegal under Chinese law, Virginia Newman of Miller & Chevalier said during a recent webinar.
CBP in April identified 377 shipments valued at more than $159 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 update. That's close to March's total of 400 shipments valued at more than $122.7 million (see 2304180032). CBP also seized 1,864 shipments that contained counterfeit goods valued at more than $2.7 billion, and completed 33 audits that identified $136 million in duties and fees owed to the U.S. government for goods that had been improperly declared, the agency said.
CBP’s approach to enforcing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act has been “especially damaging” to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) forced to confront “nearly impossible” supply chain documentation requirements and that lack the ability to easily restructure their supply chains, a customs lawyer said in a recent post on the China Law Blog.
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.
Products tainted by Uyghur forced labor include a "vast array" of agricultural products, raw materials and manufactured goods and are not just limited to the few industries CBP has specifically targeted, according to a report from Sheffield Hallam University released May 15. While tomatoes, cotton and polysilicon do have a large market share of goods produced through forced labor, China's extensive production of raw materials, agricultural products, and manufacturing products means that many industries have some sort of tie to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
The chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee used his perch to promote a bill he sponsored that would allow the president to lower duties on non-import-sensitive goods made by a country that lost exports due to coercive actions; increase duties on imports from the "foreign adversary" committing the coercion; and allow the U.S. to more easily facilitate trade, including exports, with the coerced parties (see 2302230021).
Federal agencies led by the DHS' Homeland Security Investigations unit carried out a court-authorized search on May 8 of a JinkoSloar plant in Jacksonville, Florida, an FBI spokesperson confirmed to International Trade Today.
CBP is delaying its planned automation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act detention process, according to the agency’s most recent ACE development and deployment schedule, released May 9. An entry in the schedule for “Automation of CBP Form 6051D for Detentions of Cargo Filed in ACE,” including UFLPA detentions, is now listed as having a deployment date of "TBD," after having been projected for deployment in May in CBP's prior ACE schedules. CBP has said the capability, which would “create an automated process for Admissibility Reviews and Exception Requests,” would be deployed May 20 (see 2304210072). CBP did not immediately comment.