Social compliance audits meant to show to CBP the lack of Xinjiang forced labor for imports suspected to be subject to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act would require additional proof that the auditors weren't interfered with by the government or the company involved, said Thomas Kendrick, CBP assistant director of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Center of Excellence and Expertise. Kendrick and other CBP officials discussed UFLPA compliance on June 7 during the second of three webinars on the subject (see 2206010034).
A week before U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai heads to Geneva for the World Trade Organization's ministerial conference, she said she's excited for what the meeting could bring, though she avoided predicting that either an intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines would be approved, or that the 20-year fisheries negotiations would be closed.
A panel of industry, trade group representatives and a customs broker disagreed on the proper approach to changing domestic de minimis policy, or even if it should be changed, but agreed that it's perverse that warehouses in Canada and Mexico are serving as way stations for small packages destined for U.S. consumers.
CBP posted a new fact sheet about the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and how the law will affect importers when it is implemented on June 21.
The 11 withhold release orders currently in place that involve companies or products from the Xinjiang region in China will become subject to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act as of June 21, said Elva Muneton, CBP acting executive director for the UFLPA Implementation Task Force, while speaking to a Los Angeles Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association webinar June 2. That means goods subject to those WROs that are detained by CBP as of June 21 will require clear and convincing evidence that forced labor wasn't involved to be allowed to enter the U.S, she said. Before June 21, those detained goods would continue through the WRO process, Muneton said.
Despite industry requests for delayed enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act to allow for a review of CBP's coming guidance around the new law (see 2203110059), the agency seems set for full implementation starting June 21, said Elva Muneton, CBP acting executive director for the UFLPA Implementation Task Force. "The expectation is that we will be ready to implement the Uyghur Act on June 21 and that we have the resources and that we're going to take the approach of addressing any shipments coming from that region," she said. "So the question is, are we ready to implement? Yes, we are. June 21." Muneton and others spoke June 1 during the first of three CBP webinars about the UFLPA (see 2205250021).
Just three weeks before the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act will go into effect, many important questions remain unanswered, said Richard Mojica, a former CBP headquarters attorney now with Miller & Chevalier.
A group of lawmakers is calling the outcry around the anticircumvention case on solar panels made in Southeast Asia "an attempt to undermine the integrity of our trade enforcement laws and the independence of our federal workforce."
The CBP Office of Trade Relations plans to host webinars on three dates in June to give an overview of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, the agency said on its UFLPA site. The webinars are scheduled for June 1, 10-11 a.m. EDT; June 7, 1-2 p.m. EDT; and June 16, 2-3 p.m. EDT.
Data analysis nonprofit C4ADS highlighted nine products that are "produced in disproportionately high volumes in Xinjiang that are part of global supply chains," in a new report released May 19. The report examines China's Xinjiang region's role in manufacturing those products: cotton, tomato products, pepper products, walnuts, rayon, calcium carbide, polysilicon, wind turbines, and beryllium. "These goods should be a focal point of international stakeholders’ response to the crisis in the region: if these goods are found to be produced by forced labor, or otherwise support oppression in Xinjiang, removing them from global supply chains can help end international support for these crimes," the report said.