Products tainted by Uyghur forced labor include a "vast array" of agricultural products, raw materials and manufactured goods and are not just limited to the few industries CBP has specifically targeted, according to a report from Sheffield Hallam University released May 15. While tomatoes, cotton and polysilicon do have a large market share of goods produced through forced labor, China's extensive production of raw materials, agricultural products, and manufacturing products means that many industries have some sort of tie to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
The chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee used his perch to promote a bill he sponsored that would allow the president to lower duties on non-import-sensitive goods made by a country that lost exports due to coercive actions; increase duties on imports from the "foreign adversary" committing the coercion; and allow the U.S. to more easily facilitate trade, including exports, with the coerced parties (see 2302230021).
Federal agencies led by the DHS' Homeland Security Investigations unit carried out a court-authorized search on May 8 of a JinkoSloar plant in Jacksonville, Florida, an FBI spokesperson confirmed to International Trade Today.
CBP is delaying its planned automation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act detention process, according to the agency’s most recent ACE development and deployment schedule, released May 9. An entry in the schedule for “Automation of CBP Form 6051D for Detentions of Cargo Filed in ACE,” including UFLPA detentions, is now listed as having a deployment date of "TBD," after having been projected for deployment in May in CBP's prior ACE schedules. CBP has said the capability, which would “create an automated process for Admissibility Reviews and Exception Requests,” would be deployed May 20 (see 2304210072). CBP did not immediately comment.
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.
Kharon, a company that provides intelligence to help companies with global compliance issues, says that caustic soda, commonly known as lye, is being produced by a state-owned company in Xinjiang, and is being sold to Vietnamese fabric manufacturers and electronics manufacturers, and is even being sold to U.S. cleaning products manufacturers.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wrote to CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller, arguing that since a Chinese-owned cobalt mining company is partnering with Ford and PT Vale Indonesia to open a nickel processing facility in Indonesia, "there is a high likelihood that Huayou will also introduce forced and child labor to Indonesia."
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.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he'll use the 2021 trade title from the Senate China package as his committee works on its contribution to a second China package envisioned by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to address economic competition with China and to deter Chinese aggression toward Taiwan.
University of Delaware Professor Sheng Lu, who specializes in Fashion and Apparel Studies, told an audience from the U.S. Fashion Industry Association that although there are good reasons to want to source more apparel from Central America and the Dominican Republic -- to avoid forced labor from Xinjiang or generally reduce China exposure -- growth is unlikely unless Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement countries are able to access more nylon, viscose, wool or linen fabrics.