Existing Xinjiang WROs Will Fall Under UFLPA as of June 21

The 11 withhold release orders currently in place that involve companies or products from the Xinjiang region in China will become subject to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act as of June 21, said Elva Muneton, CBP acting executive director for the UFLPA Implementation Task Force, while speaking to a Los Angeles Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association webinar June 2. That means goods subject to those WROs that are detained by CBP as of June 21 will require clear and convincing evidence that forced labor wasn't involved to be allowed to enter the U.S, she said. Before June 21, those detained goods would continue through the WRO process, Muneton said.

Muneton said she expects many of the first detentions under the UFLPA to be goods that are subject to the Xinjiang WROs currently. The WROs that don't involve the Xinjiang region will remain in place as is, she said.

Asked whether CBP will be able to inform importers specifically what the agency believes comes from Xinjiang when there is a detention, Muneton said that's unlikely. "I don't think we can do that in the detention piece because we can't create 20 detentions for different scenarios for different products," she said. CBP will be using a standard detention notice across the ports, she said.

All indications are that UFLPA implementation will go ahead as planned on June 21 (see 2206010034), Muneton said. "As of today, I haven't heard anything about a delay for implementation," she said.