Car Battery Maker Challenges Placement on UFLPA Entity List at Trade Court
Chinese manufacturer Camel Group Co. took to the Court of International Trade last week to contest its placement on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List, arguing that the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force "utterly disregarded, ignored and trampled" its due process rights in a "flawed and poorly executed process." The company said FLETF illicitly conducted the process in the shadows, refusing to offer it access to any of the evidence used against the company, and that the decision to deny its petition to be removed from the list wasn't backed by substantial evidence (Camel Group Co. v. United States, CIT # 25-00022).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
Camel Group is a large manufacturer, producing over 400 different products, including "automobile batteries, traction batteries, and marine batteries," the company said. The company established two affiliates -- Camel Group Xinjiang Renewable Resources Co. and Camel Group Xinjiang Storage Battery Co. -- in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in 2015 and 2017. Camel Group said neither of the company's Xinjiang facilities ships products to the U.S.
Prior to its addition to the UFLPA Entity List, Camel Group was issued 82 detention notices by CBP on its U.S. subsidiary for goods imported from Camel's China-based subsidiaries. In all 82 instances, CBP said that the U.S. subsidiary, Camel Energy, gave enough information to establish by "clear and convincing" evidence that Camel Group's products weren't made using forced labor or sourced from XUAR, the complaint said.
Despite CBP's findings, Camel Group was added to the UFLPA Entity List in August 2023. In so doing, FLETF alleged that the company was working with the XUAR government to "recruit, transport, transfer, harbor or receive forced labor or Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, or member of other persecuted groups out of" the XUAR. Camel Group said it wasn't given any "reasoned explanation, justifications, evidence, Administrative Records, or any information that would have reasonably informed" the company of any "evidence and charges" against it that led to the listing decision.
Camel Group said that it found out through its own "due diligence" that allegations were made by a non-governmental organization that said that the exporter took part in a XUAR government-sponsored labor transfer program around July 2017. The company said the allegations were made public in three reports released by Sheffield Hallam University.
After FLETF repeatedly refused to offer the evidence it relied on in making the listing decision, Camel Group treated the Sheffield Hallam University reports as the evidence it had to refute. As evidence of Camel Group's presence in the labor transfer program, the reports cited a notice of the plan and a WeChat article on the program that cited Camel Group as one of its participants. The report also had photographs of the program's handover ceremony that the university "incorrectly and irresponsibly claimed, without evidence, depicted Camel Group’s participation," the complaint said.
Camel Group said it was contacted by the XUAR government to take part in the handover ceremony but it "declined to participate." It was merely an error in the WeChat article listing the exporter as a participant that was corrected in a follow-up article published on the Yaxin News Network, the complaint said. The company said it didn't "receive any subsidy or incentive payments from" the XUAR government relating to the transfer program.
After its initial listing, a CBP Center of Excellence and Expertise officer directed Camel Group to the Entity List removal process in the Federal Register. The exporter said that since the Federal Register "did not provide sufficient guidance on the process to seek removal" and no company had "done so before," Camel Group was "left guessing on how to respond to the Listing Decision." The company sent requests for information to FLETF and even filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Homeland Security seeking information on its listing, the complaint said.
After a phone conversation with FLETF about the removal process, Camel Group sent a formal letter to FLETF, which the task force never responded to but confirmed receiving, the complaint said. The company then gathered evidence, including a declaration from a Camel Group employee "attesting to the interactions" with the XUAR government and a letter from the XUAR government backing the company's findings that it didn't take part in the labor transfer program, Camel Group petitioned for removal from the Entity List.
Camel Group alleged in its complaint that FLETF had a conflict of interest, since Dr. Laura Murphy, a co-author of the Sheffield Hallam University reports, was appointed a policy adviser to the undersecretary for DHS policy and chair of the FLETF, Robert Silvers. The company said that it suspected that the reports were the "sole reasons for Camel Group's addition to the UFLPA Entity List" and Murphy "could undoubtedly influence FLETF’s consideration of Camel Group’s Petition,"
FLETF replied by stating that Murphy's role is as "Policy Advisor," though it refused to give any information on Murphy's role in the delisting process, the complaint said.
The task force then asked Camel Group a host of questions related to its removal petition, though the exporter alleged that some of the questions went beyond the scope of the UFLPA. For instance, FLETF asked about Camel Group's relationship with Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps., construction of the Camel Renewable facility in Xinjiang and the company's obligations to collect security information for ethnic minority citizens.
FLETF then met with Camel Group in April 2024 for what the company dubbed a "listening session." The exporter said the meeting, which was held virtually, allowed the company to present information it would like the task force to consider. During the meeting, Camel Group stressed FLETF's refusal to allow the company access to the task force's evidence and again asked for the access to the administrative record as well as information on the voting process, including the standard of proof used by FLETF. No answers were provided.
Camel Group's petition for removal was ultimately denied, with FLETF finding, "based on publicly available information, that there was reasonable cause to believe Camel Group participated" in the labor transfer program. The exporter said the task force "did not provide any reasons, analysis or actual evidence" for its findings.
The complaint said FLETF didn't give any explanation as to why it found Camel Group's evidence insufficient, adding that, "[s]trikingly, by the FLETF's lack of transparency in this process," a reasonable person could find that the U.S. government relied solely on the Sheffield Hallam University reports.