CBP Updates Forced Labor Guidance for Importers

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an updated operational guidance for importers regarding CBP’s enforcement of prohibitions on the importation of goods made with forced labor. This guide expands a June 2022 guidance regarding the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act to include all forced labor enforcement.

CBP states that it created this guide to:

– help importers understand the differences among the various forced labor authorities concerning imports (19 USC 1307, the UFLPA, and the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) and their respective enforcement processes;

– explain the steps importers should take prior to importing goods, what records they need to provide to demonstrate admissibility should their goods be detained or excluded, and how to submit requests to CBP to have their cargo released into U.S. commerce; and

– help businesses and individuals practice reasonable care to comply with U.S. forced labor laws, especially when working with vendors, suppliers, manufacturers, and companies that are at risk of using forced labor in their production supply chain.

To this end, the updated guidance provides a consolidated overview of the three statutory authorities and gives users greater transparency across CBP’s enforcement landscape, including the following.

– new enforcement process maps covering UFLPA, CAATSA, and 19 USC 1307 withhold release order and finding actions

– new dedicated sections on the WRO/finding and CAATSA enforcement processes providing step-by-step guidance on what importers can expect and how to respond to detentions or exclusions

– additional appendices outlining recommended supply chain documentation for UFLPA high-priority sectors, practical UFLPA due diligence examples, and sample detention and exclusion notices related to UFLPA, WRO, and CAATSA actions, as well as notices of redelivery and certificates of origin 

“None of this is conceptually new,” STR’s Nicole Bivens Collinson states in a recent episode of her Two Minutes in Trade podcast. “What’s new is the clarity—and the expectation that companies operationalize it.”

Collinson therefore recommends that importers build end-to-end visibility, map inputs beyond Tier 1, stress-test supplier attestations, pre-position documentation that can meet a “clear and convincing” standard on short notice, and consider prior disclosures if problems are found.

“Bottom line: process now matters as much as substance,” Collinson concludes. “Document what you know, when you knew it, and how you verified it. When CBP comes calling, your answer is only as strong as your paper trail.”