The Uyghur Human Rights Project, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, is asking shoppers at Asian and international supermarkets to watch out for red dates coming from Xinjiang, and to report the presence of those goods to CBP, as they violate the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
Large U.S. multinationals are more pessimistic about doing business in China than they have ever been, but it's not because they have come to expect the Section 301 tariffs will never go away. Rather, the annual U.S.-China Business Council membership survey found that lockdowns to control COVID-19 are the top problem for companies doing business in China, with 96% of respondents saying the lockdowns hurt their firms, and 48% saying that there was a severe negative impact.
CBP detained 2,010 shipments due to withhold release orders through June 30, the agency said in an update to its trade statistics page Aug. 19. CBP detained 1,469 shipments related to the WROs in fiscal year 2021. The value of the detained goods stopped in FY 2022 through June 30 is $357.8 million, it said. The value of detained goods in the previous fiscal year was $486 million.
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Several Chinese companies that make solar panels that are imported into the U.S. should be added to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act entity list, the Coalition for a Prosperous America said in an Aug. 10 letter to the leaders of DHS and CBP. CPA, a domestic industry trade group, noted a recent report that solar panels have been stopped by CBP. A withhold release order should also be issued against goods imported by affiliated companies, it said. Specifically, CPA said the following companies should be added to the list:
Entities named on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act entity list can ask for removal through a request to the forced labor enforcement task force, DHS said in a recent notice. "In the removal request, the entity (or its designated representative) should provide information that demonstrates that the entity no longer meets or does not meet the criteria" of the UFLPA, it said. "Upon receipt of the removal request, the FLETF Chair or the Chair's designated representative may contact the entity on behalf of the FLETF regarding questions on the removal request and may request additional information. Following review of the removal request by the FLETF member agencies, the decision to remove an entity from the UFLPA Entity List will be made by majority vote of the FLETF member agencies." Entities can also request a meeting with the FLETF, it said. FLETF member agencies can also recommend additions to the list, it said. "The decision to add an entity to the UFLPA Entity List will be made by majority vote of the FLETF member agencies," it said.
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The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative heard from business groups, businesses that offer traceability solutions and civil society groups, 45 in all, on how to shape a forced labor strategy -- but their views diverged strongly on what the approach should be.
A little over a month since the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act rebuttable presumption took effect, no importer so far has successfully overcome that presumption, Elva Muneton, acting executive director of the UFLPA Implementation Task Force said, speaking Aug. 3 during the CBP Detroit Field Office's Virtual Trade Week. "Thirty days into this. I have not seen any documentation that has been able to overcome the rebuttable presumption," she said. But, "it's only been 30 days so I think the documentation for a lot of the shippers that are detained are being assembled to be submitted to CBP. That's what I'm guessing is happening."
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