The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, with importers bearing the burden of proof, is the No. 1 forced labor compliance issue, panelists said, outpacing disclosure and due diligence laws in other countries around the world.
While the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and other factors have led to uncertainty and a "more complex risk environment" for imports, some companies have found strategies to "effectively navigate" this environment, law firm Bradley said in a new blog post. Some of those strategies included being "proactive" in engaging their original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), in developing "internal protocols" to monitor their supply chains, in incorporating "traceability audits," in finding "backup sourcing" and in shifting risk of "non-performance" to "downstream parties" or OEMs, Bradley said.
Allegations that Diesel Canada, Hugo Boss Canada and Walmart Canada purchase garments that were made in part with Uyghur forced labor -- complaints that rely on Australian Strategic Policy Institute reporting in 2020 and Sheffield Hallam University reports -- will progress to a fact-finding investigation after the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) found that the companies' responses weren't satisfactory.
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CBP now plans on deploying its automation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act detention process in January, according to the agency’s most recent ACE development and deployment schedule, released Aug. 30. The entry for “Automation of CBP Form 6051D for Detentions of Cargo Filed in ACE, including Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Detentions” had previously been listed with a deployment date as TBD, after CBP delayed the deployment this past May (see 2305090071). CBP has said the capability would create an automated process for UFLPA admissibility reviews and exception requests.
Market and geopolitical risk analysts said everything has gone wrong, undermining supply chain reliability over the last several years, and businesses are creating redundancy but are still anxious about the additional costs that entails.
Sixteen state attorneys general are asking the Security and Exchange Commission to block the listing of SHEIN -- or any other foreign-owned firm -- on a U.S. stock exchange unless a "truly independent" certification can be made that the company does not export goods made with forced labor.
The Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF) should "exercise restraint" in putting entities on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List and focus only on companies that are "clearly implicated" in the use of forced labor, international trade lawyer John Foote said in a blog post Aug. 28.The blog post focuses on Ninestar Corporation's case against FLETF and the potential impact of being included on the Entity List (see 2308230016).
The Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF) violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to provide any rationale for adding Chinese printer cartridge manufacturer Ninestar Corp., along with eight of its Zhuhai-based subsidiaries, to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List, the companies, led by Ninestar, argued (Ninestar Corp., et al. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00182).
CBP in July identified 388 shipments valued at more than $107 million for further examination based on the suspected use of forced labor, including goods subject to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and withhold release orders, the agency said in its most recent operational statistics update. That's down from June, when CBP identified a total of 405 shipments valued at more than $239 million (see 2307190029). Also in July, CBP seized 1,698 shipments that contained counterfeit goods valued at more than $165 million, the agency said.