Comment Period for UFLPA Opens on January 24

As an update to our Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (“UFLPA”) post, the public comment period will open on Monday, January 24, 2022.  A Federal Register Notice will be published on Monday and the 45-day comment period will end on March 10, 2022.  The UFLPA was signed on December 23, 2021 and will take effect on June 21, 2022.

As required by the UFLPA, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, on behalf of the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (“FLETF”), is seeking comments on how best to ensure that goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part with forced labor in China are not imported into the United States.  A non-exhaustive list of questions from the Federal Register Notice for commenters is provided below:

  • What are the risks of importing goods, wares, articles and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part with forced labor in the People’s Republic of China, including from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region or made by Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tibetans, or members of other persecuted groups in any other part of the People’s Republic of China?
  • To the extent feasible, as part of the assessment of risks, what mechanisms, including the potential involvement in supply chains of entities that may use forced labor, could lead to the importation into the United States from the People’s Republic of China, including through third countries, of goods, wares, articles and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part with forced labor?
  • What forms does the use of forced labor take in the People’s Republic of China and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region? For example, what “pairing assistance” and “poverty alleviation” or other government labor schemes exist in the People’s Republic of China that include the forced labor of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tibetans, or members of other persecuted groups outside of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region? What similar programs exist in which work or services are extracted from Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tibetans, or members of other persecuted groups under the threat of penalty or for which they have not offered themselves voluntarily?
  • What goods are mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part with forced labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region or by entities that work with the government of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to recruit, transport, transfer, harbor, or receive forced labor?

All comments and material submitted will be available online.

For more information on the UFLPA and actions addressing human rights and forced labor abuses, contact our team.

 

Tags: UFLPA
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Photo of John Brew John Brew

John Brew is the co-chair of Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group and a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He has extensive experience in import and export trade regulation, and he regularly advises corporations, trade associations, foreign governments, and non-governmental organizations…

John Brew is the co-chair of Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group and a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He has extensive experience in import and export trade regulation, and he regularly advises corporations, trade associations, foreign governments, and non-governmental organizations on matters involving customs administration, enforcement, compliance, litigation, legislation and policy.

John represents clients in proceedings at the administrative and judicial levels, as well as before Congress and the international bureaucracies that handle customs and trade matters. He advises clients on all substantive import regulatory issues handled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, such as classification, valuation, origin, marking, tariff preference programs, other agency regulations, admissibility, import restrictions, quotas, drawback, audits, prior disclosures, penalties, investigations, Importer Self Assessment and Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism programs, importations under bond, the Jones Act, vessel repairs, and foreign trade zone matters.

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Photo of David Stepp David Stepp

David Stepp is an experienced trade lawyer who provides multinational companies with strategic advice on global customs and international trade compliance matters. David is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Crowell & Moring.

His practice focuses on advising companies on their…

David Stepp is an experienced trade lawyer who provides multinational companies with strategic advice on global customs and international trade compliance matters. David is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Crowell & Moring.

His practice focuses on advising companies on their e-commerce strategies globally, conducting global customs and international trade audits, and assisting clients on improving, benchmarking, and coordinating compliance programs across borders.

David has over 30 years of experience handling international trade regulatory matters, including those related to tariff classification, valuation, country of origin marking, free trade agreements, and Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT).

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Frances P. Hadfield is a counsel in Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group in the firm’s New York office. Her practice focuses on forced labor and withhold release orders (WRO), import regulatory compliance, and customs litigation. She regularly advises corporations on matters involving…

Frances P. Hadfield is a counsel in Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group in the firm’s New York office. Her practice focuses on forced labor and withhold release orders (WRO), import regulatory compliance, and customs litigation. She regularly advises corporations on matters involving customs compliance, audits, customs enforcement, as well as import penalties.

Frances represents clients before the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, as well as in proceedings at the administrative level. She advises corporations on both substantive federal and state regulatory issues that involve U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Trade Commission, Food and Drug Administration, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife in matters pertaining to product admissibility, audits, classification, import restrictions, investigations, marking, licenses, origin, penalties, and tariff preference programs.

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Photo of Martín Yerovi Martín Yerovi

Martín Yerovi is an international trade analyst in Crowell & Moring’s Washington, D.C. office. He provides practice support to the International Trade Group on import regulatory matters pending before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection…

Martín Yerovi is an international trade analyst in Crowell & Moring’s Washington, D.C. office. He provides practice support to the International Trade Group on import regulatory matters pending before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). He works closely with attorneys developing courses of action for clients impacted by investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. He also supports unfair trade investigations, including antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations, sunset reviews, and changed circumstance reviews before the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission (ITC).

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