Applied DNA Sciences recently received a first request for traceable tagged cotton "that is directly attributable to the recent passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act," the company said in an earnings news release. The company's CertainT platform is described as allowing for raw materials and products to be traced through unique molecular identifiers. "Our team has presented to many members of Congress, Federal agencies, and Committees regarding the utility of our platform in enforcing the Act," the company said. "Though not expected to be material to revenue in the current fiscal year, the shipment anticipates a global brand’s multi-year commitment to our CertainT platform through a scaled deployment across its many supply chains. We believe that the passage of the Act is a trigger point for the wider adoption of our CertainT platform that holds the potential for molecular taggant sales for textile fiber applications to become a second material revenue stream," it said. "With less than 45 days before the Act goes into force, we believe interest in CertainT by brands and their supply chains has never been higher.”
CBP is ready for the June start date of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, John Leonard, deputy executive assistant commissioner of the CBP Office of Trade told a textile conference audience. However, Leonard acknowledged that CBP won't have identified factories outside of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region that employ Uyghurs or members of other persecuted groups by the start of enforcement. Those goods are also supposed to be blocked under the UFLPA.
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The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and the likelihood that the EU will pass a due diligence directive requiring disclosure of forced labor risk for large companies are changing the paradigm of supply chain visibility, a top Labor Department official said during a webinar on human rights in global supply chains. Thea Lee, a long-time union official and now deputy undersecretary for international affairs in the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, said, "I do think that we are in a new era, and it will behoove most companies to start taking these steps to be able to have the eyes into their supply chain whether they are directly impacted right now by the EU directive or whether they are selling goods into the United States."
TUCSON, Arizona -- CBP will be issuing its guidance on the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act prior to the new law’s June 21 effective date, CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said in remarks at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America annual conference May 4. The guidance, which will “provide transparency to CBP’s operational approach,” will be out “very, very soon,” he said.
TUCSON, Arizona -- As CBP develops its 21st Century Customs Framework, the role of the customs broker will change in ways that reflect the new era of economic competition and “national economic security” concerns, Brandon Lord, deputy executive director of CBP’s Office of Trade Policy and Programs, said May 3 at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America annual conference.
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Florida's two U.S. senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, introduced a bill that would require publicly traded companies to report any transactions with Chinese companies on the entity list or that are designated as military-industrial complex companies, and report their sourcing and due diligence activities for supply chains if their imported products have been "directly linked to products utilizing forced labor from Xinjiang, China." The senators, both Republican, announced the bill April 29, and said they have four other Republican co-sponsors.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asked the chairman of the board of Volkswagen to justify joint ventures with Chinese companies, arguing that they are involved in child forced labor in Congolese cobalt mines, and the destruction of rainforest habitat in Indonesia. He also referred to a two-year-old non-governmental organization's report that said Highbroad Advanced Material Co. accepts transferred Uyghur labor, and that the company sells to Volkswagen for its electronic displays, and said that the two companies that are now in joint ventures are also implicated in Uyghur forced labor. He said Huayou Cobalt and Tsingshan Holding Group "are implicated in grotesque human rights abuses." Rubio announced the letter on April 28 in a press release.
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.