U.S. Customs and Border Protection has postponed a forced labor-related change to the Automated Commercial Environment in light of industry concerns.
CBP had recently announced plans to deploy this month a new alert that it said “will provide an early notification to importers of goods that may have been produced in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” of China and would therefore be subject to restrictions under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
According to CBP, three new validations would be performed when China is selected as a manufacturer’s country of origin for entry, China is selected as a manufacturer’s country of origin when a manufacturer identification code is created, or an existing MID with the country of origin China is updated. Specifically (1) postal code would be a required field, (2) users would receive an error message if the postal code provided is not a valid Chinese postal code, and (3) users would receive a warning message when a Uyghur region postal code has been provided.
However, CBP said Nov. 1 that it is postponing this change until further notice while it works with impacted users to address their concerns. To that end, CBP is forming a working group under the Trade Support Network that will gather input from the trade community on the challenges associated with the proposed implementation of this change and alternative approaches that could mitigate these concerns. CBP also wants to know how much time the trade community would need to test this change and when it should be actively deployed.
Those interested in participating in this working group should send their name, company information, and email address to CBP via email no later than Nov. 10.
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