CECC, Rubio, McGovern, Question DHS on UFLPA Implementation
The chair and co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, along with the lead sponsors of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, told Homeland Security Undersecretary Robert Silvers that they're concerned about the implementation of UFLPA, and that they intend to call Silvers to testify at a hearing in the near future, along with "a panel of experts on trade, labor trafficking, and supply chain mapping."
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Their letter, sent April 11, said they've been pleased with CBP's regular briefings on UFLPA's implementation, and they also appreciate the new UFLPA dashboard. Still, they wrote, "we remain concerned that Congress lacks sufficient information and transparency to accurately assess whether implementation of the law comports with congressional intent." Reps. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., and Jim McGovern, D-Mass., as well as Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wrote the letter.
They argued that it's not just when importers overcome the rebuttable presumption for goods made in the Xinjiang region that the goods' release must be disclosed to Congress. Instead, the men wrote, all releases should be explained publicly.
"We understand that there have been instances where importers have had cargo released, even though CBP initially stopped it because of evidence of a link to the forced labor of Uyghurs outside of the XUAR. We also learned that nearly 300 cargo shipments were stopped and later released because the importer claimed -- and CBP accepted -- that the UFLPA didn’t apply. The goods released included items from high-risk sectors with significant ties to the XUAR and labor transfer programs," they wrote.
They also complained that the UFLPA Entity List is too short. The Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force, which assembles the list, "has received information from nongovernmental organizations and researchers that detail a wide scope of entities engaged in forced labor in Xinjiang and beyond. But all this information has not led to additional listings. Based on the briefing our staff received on the FLETF deliberative process, we are concerned that the process is too bureaucratically cumbersome to allow for effective decision-making on listings. Additionally, we do not see in the current listings any entity engaged in the state-sponsored labor transfer program."
They asked CBP to report the value of all goods imported in the solar, cotton and tomato paste categories, and the unit counts, and what proportion of those goods were detained under UFLPA.
They suggested Congress may change the de minimis law to make UFLPA enforcement more possible. "In order to better understand how the 'de minimis' rules affect the UFLPA implementation as we contemplate legislative actions to address this loophole, we request more information about how CBP enforces UFLPA with regard to 'de-minimis' shipments from [China] ... ."