CBP Now Targeting PVC Products Under UFLPA, Adds PVC Questions to Detention Notices, Lawyer Says

CBP is now detaining polyvinyl chloride products for forced labor under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, customs lawyer Ted Murphy said in a client alert Feb. 7. That’s in addition to a newfound focus on aluminum (see 2301120046), as well as the high priority sectors listed in the UFLPA statute: cotton, tomatoes and polysilicon, Murphy said.

PVC products and aluminum “have been the subject of numerous NGO or news reports in recent months about possible connections to Xinjiang and CBP is likely responding to those reports,” Murphy said. “CBP recently revised its UFLPA detention notice supplement/product specific addendum to include these two categories of products (in addition to cotton, tomatoes and polysilicon) and we have recently seen a meaningful increase in the number of detentions,” he said.

Reached for comment, a CBP spokesperson said the agency is "unable to disclose information about specific goods detained under UFLPA due to law enforcement sensitive and business confidential information," but that it "employs a dynamic, risk-based approach to enforcement that prioritizes action against the highest-risk goods based on current data and intelligence to prevent goods made from forced labor from entering U.S. commerce."

Luxury vinyl tile has been singled out as problematic by nongovernmental organizations. One has said the majority of luxury vinyl tile has PVC content from Xinjiang made from forced labor (see 2206230041).

Importers of PVC products and aluminum products, as well as the three original UFLPA priority sectors, “should be making sure they have their supply chain mapping and supplier documentation in order to help facilitate CBP’s review of any detention (which can take months),” Murphy said. The addition of the product-specific addendums for PVC products and aluminum mean companies faced with detentions are now “expected to be able to provide documentation back to the raw material stage” for these products, like they’ve had to with cotton, tomatoes and polysilicon. “This level of tracing can be a challenge,” Murphy said.