CBP Conducts Forced Labor Outreach After North Korea Law, Including Updates to Reasonable Care ICP
CBP has begun a “significant communications outreach” to the trade community on forced labor in the wake of the recent passage of a law that set restrictions on entry of merchandise tied to North Korean nationals, it said in a press release. The agency updated its informed compliance publication on reasonable care to include new information on forced labor, and “has engaged with the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) Forced Labor Work Group and has acted on many of its recommendations,” it said.
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The informed compliance guide, “What Every Member of the Trade Community Should Know: Reasonable Care,” now includes a series of questions on page 14 on measures to ensure imported goods are not produced using forced labor. For example, the guide asks whether the importer has established reasonable procedures, knows how its goods are made, reviewed the Department of Labor webpage and list of goods produced by child or forced labor, and established a procedure of conducting periodic internal audits to check for forced labor in the supply chain, including by way of a third-party auditor. The questions also touch on supplier vetting and contract terms.
The updated informed compliance guide also includes several additional questions on valuation, including whether the importer has documentation ready for CBP review for its chosen method of appraisement. An additional question on intellectual property rights asks if importers of refurbished or remanufactured goods have documentation detailing the remanufacturing process. CBP removed a section with additional questions for textile and apparel importers.
Signed Aug. 2 (see 1708020030), the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act prohibits from entry “any significant merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part by North Korean nationals or citizens,” unless the agency finds “through clear and convincing evidence that the merchandise was not produced with a form of prohibited labor,” CBP said. If CBP finds evidence a good was produced with North Korean labor, the agency “will deny entry, which may include seizure of the merchandise, and refer the issue to [ICE] Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with a request to initiate a criminal investigation for violation of U.S. law.”