Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

A Recipe for Compliance

For the average consumer, there’s the cookbook and the shopping list that comes with following those instructions. Particularly now with the Fourth of July holiday this weekend, we’re probably all digging out those hand-written, handed-down books laden with summertime barbecue and boat favorites.

 

With grocery shelves having some gaping holes or old reliable ingredients no longer available, the need for clever last-minute substitutions and improvisation is quickly becoming the norm rather than the exception. If you’re good, you can ingredient swap without people even noticing the difference.

 

For buyers of finished goods, the quality and efficacy of the end product they receive has traditionally been sufficient. Needing to know not just the country of origin but the manufacturer, the source of the earliest precursor components and even the name and location of a farm are now all part of an importer’s responsibility. If Customs or a participating government agency like FDA or the EPA wants to know, not having an answer is not an option.

 

Years ago, CBP was focused on the country of origin of merchandise for both evasion of quotas (limitations on the quantity and type of a product which could be imported) and because USDA laws may permit the import of a product from one country but not another because of the risk to American agriculture. There are no shortage of invasive species which have now become ubiquitous such as the Longhorn Beetle or Asian Carp which threaten to destroy ecosystems.

 

Moving past quotas, CBP has been focused on the issue of forced and child labor, with an entire page devoted to products, manufacturers and countries from which items are prohibited entry ranging from latex gloves to peeled garlic and electric fans. These goods are tracked on a page with Withhold Release Orders maintained by the agency.

 

This month, the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA) came into law, and unlike any other mechanism preceding this statute, the presumption of innocence came first. Under UFLPA, the term being used is “rebuttable presumption”. As we wrote about in our last entry, CBP is looking not just to where a good was finished, but where any underlying component was sourced for a direct line to the affected region. The agency is using both public data sources and their own intelligence and targeting to identify shipments which may contain violative material from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or XUAR. 

 

What does this mean for US importers? Three well-known exports from Xinjiang are cotton, tomatoes and polysilicate (a precursor to solar cells). 

 

  • For a textile or footwear importer, does any part of the garment or shoe contain cotton that was grown in Xinjiang?
  • For a food importer, does any part of the ingredient list contain tomatoes and can they go back to the manufacturer to provide verifiable records showing the source of the fruit?
  • For an importer of solar-powered lawn and garden lights, do the solar cells contain raw materials or components that could cause the shipment to be detained?

 

The level of detail that importers are required to maintain to remain in compliance has increased as governments have wanted to know more. A condition of importing, these agencies contend, is complying with a bevy of laws increasingly designed to follow a product from its earliest identifiable components, both to enforce trade laws and to protect consumers from fraudulent or harmful food, drugs or ineffective or dangerous medical devices.

 

Future Forwarding has been in the business of helping importers keep compliance for decades and our senior customs and compliance leaders have watched the evolution of these agencies and the granular level of detail they now require. Knowing what’s in a product isn’t just an importer’s legal responsibility, but can also open doors to classification changes that reduce or eliminate duties or provide information to support drawback claims at the time of export.

 

Let Future Forwarding help ensure your supply chain meets the requisite levels of transparency and compliance to prevent delays and provide savings opportunities. Contact us today.

Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Impact

On December 23rd, President Biden signed into law the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act. The legislation passed Congress by huge margins in the House and Senate and seems to be one of the few places that both sides of the aisle can find common ground – China’s human rights record.

It becomes law 180 days from the date of signing so on June 21, 2022, all products of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or XUAR, will be prohibited entry into the United States based on the supposition and grounds that the goods were “mined, produced or manufactured” using forced labor.

 

The United States has consistently been focused on this issue across multiple previous administrations with presidents from both parties. CBP has notably been taking steps to issue Withhold Release Orders for companies and entire product groups from this province in western China and the Act is a strong, codified step that requires importers to take a closer look at their entire supply chain to determine whether any part of it runs through Xinjiang.

The Act can be read here, but in brief, a Forced Labor Task Force will be charged with soliciting comments and receiving public testimony. They will then adjudicate those comments and, in consultation with State, Commerce, DHS (CBP) and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), develop the policy framework of how the law is to be implemented. 

While many of the details are yet to be worked out, there is language in the Act which provides a means by which companies can present evidence to the government to be reviewed and, if deemed conclusively not produced with foreign labor, will be exempted and this exemption will be published no later than 30 days after the exemption determination is reached.

Importers will need to focus on three key things in the coming weeks and months.

  1. A wholesale review of supply chains and components to determine whether or not ANYTHING on a product’s bill of materials, no matter how low, originates in Xinjiang.
  2. If exposure to the law exists, speak with Future Forwarding to help submit comments or testimony, or refer to legal counsel to request an exclusion when the details are released.
  3. Expand the Xinjiang component search to countries outside China because goods could still be denied entry if further manufacturing or assembly happened in a third country and it is determined the item contains XUAR-originating components.

 

Like everything else that companies have dealt with through 2020 and 2021, this is just another challenge in the new year. Fortunately, Future Forwarding and our team of compliance experts and outside counsel are ready to help clients conduct the necessary reviews and be ready for June 21, 2022.

For a call back get in touch:

Contact Us

Ⓒ Future Forwarding 2025. All rights reserved.
Terms of use | Privacy policy | Sitemap | Web Design by Cocoonfx