Reports on Uyghur Forced Labor Aren't Taken 'as Bible' by CBP, Eric Choy Says

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- University and nongovernmental organization reports on forced labor are not necessarily taken at face value, a CBP official said Oct. 27 at the Pacific Coast Council's Western Cargo Conference., known as Wesccon. With any report, an "import specialist or an analyst" has to make the "ultimate decision," Eric Choy, CBP executive director of trade remedy law enforcement, said.

Choy was responding to a question on whether reports about Uyghur forced labor are being vetted. The questioner specifically said that while Sheffield Hallam University reports were well researched and documented, other reports are "far less robust." The perception is that CBP accepts a report about forced labor as long as it comes from an NGO, the questioner said.

"We don't leverage those reports as the Bible," Choy said. "Everything for the agency has to do with a person in the loop, whether it's an import specialist" or analysts who have "to make that ultimate decision based upon their assessment of what they've looked at in the report or to the technology."

Choy used as an example the Sheffield Hallam report that identified 55,000 to 60,000 entities involved in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (see 2304200041). Choy said there's no "one-to-one" correlation between what reports are able to identify and CBP's enforcement capabilities. Under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and forced labor statue at 19 U.S.C. 1307, CBP has power only at the border, Choy said. "If any of those entities are then connected to U.S. importation," then U.S. law applies, he said.

CBP has "not necessarily" gone through all 55,000 or 60,000 entities identified in that report. "There's a lot that goes into where we view risk," Choy said.

In general, Choy said CBP is open to hearing from the trade community about ways to address forced labor, including "what evolutions have occurred within due diligence processes, what new solutions have been thought of." He said CBP is "open to listening to them to see if these are things that would help us to better facilitate trade," he said.

He said the agency is acquiring tools and technologies to help with forced labor enforcement along with other tools to help suppliers "put these puzzle pieces" together to identify forced labor risks in their own supply chains.

He said the CBP has had discussions about leveraging partnerships with CBP's "most trusted traders" to provide "a green lane" for shipments based on the due diligence companies are doing.

While CBP will continue to have a "strong enforcement posture," it will "work to be more collaborative and try to figure out solutions where we can solve this problem," Choy said.