The inability of CBP to stop all goods made with Uyghur forced labor was one of the focuses of a trade hearing hosted on Staten Island by the House Ways and Means Committee, and when committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., asked a witness what more could be done to crack down, Uyghur activist Nury Turkel said the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act should be expanded to cover all of China.
The chairman and ranking member of the House Select Committee on China wrote to Adidas and Nike, telling them they were told by a witness that they source material from Xinjiang for their products, and to Shein and Temu, asking them questions about their use of de minimis, and, in the case of Shein, asking it to share all its cotton DNA test results with the committee.
CBP is providing an additional benefit to Trade Compliance program members of its Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, the agency said in a letter to CTPAT members posted to the agency’s website April 26. Since March 5, the agency has been offering preliminary notifications of Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act holds, CBP said.
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The CBP executive whose directorate covers trade remedies, intellectual property enforcement and e-commerce said that small-value shipments coming to the U.S. are not slipping through uninspected, just because there are no duties owed. Brandon Lord, executive director of the Trade Policy and Programs Directorate, said in an interview with International Trade Today at the CBP Trade Facilitation and Cargo Security Summit: "There's a misconception that we don't target or screen de minimis -- it's not true. People throw around the phrase 'loophole.' It's not a loophole. De minimis is not a loophole."
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP officials gave importers most of the credit for the quicker releases from detention when the government has decided there is no nexus to Xinjiang. In an interview in Boston on early implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, AnnMarie Highsmith, executive assistant commissioner of CBP's Office of Trade, said: "Importers are working harder to be prepared before their merchandise hits the water. They're learning their supply chains. They're simplifying their supply chains. I'd love to say it's us, but it's not. The importers are doing a better job."
A team at Sheffield Hallam University has identified 55,000 companies involved in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), including 3,300 companies operating in textiles and 150 companies where there is "significant evidence of participation in state-sponsored transfer of legal labor," SHU professor Laura Murphy said at a hearing on April 18. The hearing was held by the Congressional-Executive Committee on China titled the "Implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act & the Global Supply Chain Impact."
BOSTON -- In breakout sessions on operational perspectives on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and the technology that can help importers do UFLPA due diligence, CBP officials acknowledged that it's hard to provide the sort of evidence required to clear an applicability review after goods are detained.
Audience members looking for answers on how to navigate the rebuttable presumption of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act got no answers from a panel on human rights and "responsible business conduct," though they were told that if Sheffield Hallam University researchers can uncover links to forced labor in supply chains, it's not that hard for businesses to do the same.