Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the lead proponent of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in the Senate, wrote a critical letter to the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC), saying some of their ideas for customs modernization are designed to weaken the UFLPA.
CBP in recent days posted draft ACE requirements and a trade information notice on its upcoming requirement for the Chinese postal code. As discussed in a recent ACE call (see 2210270064), the new data element will be required when China is selected as a manufacturer’s country of origin for an entry, or when China is the manufacturer’s country of origin on a new or updated manufacturer ID, CBP said in the trade information notice released Nov. 2.
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CBP's plans for a new data element in ACE cargo release for the Chinese postal code are “on hold,” the agency said in a CSMS message Nov. 1. “The deployment for Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Region Alert is postponed until further notice,” CBP said. “The Office of Trade is actively working with impacted users to address concerns. A follow up CSMS message will be issued once a new deployment date is determined.”
CBP officials raised the prospect of an indefinite delay to their plans to add a new data element for the Chinese postal code to cargo release filings, after customs brokers and software developers raised concerns about the new requirement during a regular bi-weekly call to discuss ACE on Oct. 27.
CBP plans to add a new mandatory data element for entries of goods that originate in China as part of its efforts to enforce the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act. The agency will on Dec. 15 deploy a new “UFLPA Region Alert” capability in ACE, a CBP spokesperson said Oct. 26, making “postal code” a “required field” when “Country of Origin is China for Entry and for Manufacturer Identification Code (MID) creation,” according to a recent update to the agency’s ACE development schedule.
CBP has released shipments targeted under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act based on “applicability," where the importer successfully proves the goods aren’t subject to the UFLPA because they aren’t connected to the Xinjiang region of China, a CBP official said. However, the agency has yet to see an attempt to prove goods subject to UFLPA aren’t made with forced labor, the official said.
CBP targeted 491 entries worth more than $158.6 million for suspected forced labor in September, CBP said in an operational update. That’s down from the 838 entries valued at over $266.5 million in August (see 2209210080). The number includes goods subject to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) and withhold release orders, CBP said. CBP also said in its September operational update that it seized nearly 1,623 shipments that contained counterfeit goods worth more than $205 million for the month, and also completed 80 audits that identified $58.4 million in duties and fees owed to the U.S. government from goods improperly declared.
Advocacy groups expressed "outrage" over a recent proposal from trade participants in the 21st Century Customs Framework initiative to make ocean manifest data confidential, in an open letter to CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus dated Oct. 20.
The right third-party auditor is critical to the chances of success a foreign supplier may have in getting a withhold release order lifted on its products, customs lawyer Jessica Rifkin of Ben L. England and Associates said on Oct. 20. “The most important decision” that a producer can make is selecting an auditor whose results will be "credible and reliable,” she said during a webinar hosted by the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America.