DHS Adds Companies Manufacturing Footwear, Seafood and Aluminum to UFLPA List

DHS has added three more companies to the list of companies cited for using forced labor from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), according to a notice.

The companies placed on the Uygur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List are the Shandong Meijia Group (also known as Rizhao Meijia Group) in Shandong Province, China, which processes, sells and exports frozen seafood products, vegetables, quick-frozen convenience food and other aquatic foods; Xinjiang Shenhuo Coal and Electricity in the XUAR, which produces electrolytic aluminum, graphite carbon and prebaked anodes; and Dongguan Oasis Shoes in Guangdong Province, which produces and manufactures shoes and shoe material products. The company also is known as Dongguan Oasis Shoe Industry, Dongguan Luzhou Shoes and Dongguan Lvzhou Shoes.

Each of these companies satisfies the criteria to be on the list as described in Section 2(d)(2)(B)(ii) of UFLPA, which covers entities working with the government of the XUAR to recruit, transport, transfer, harbor or receive forced labor or Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, or members of other persecuted groups out of the XUAR, the notice said. Their inclusion to the UFLPA Entity List is effective June 12.

“Today’s action, which includes entities from within and outside Xinjiang, and from three different industry sectors -- footwear, seafood, and aluminum -- reaffirms our commitment to robust enforcement of the UFLPA,” DHS Undersecretary for Policy Robert Silvers said in a Monday news release. Silvers also serves as chair of the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF).

“It is imperative for companies to conduct due diligence and know where their products are coming from. The Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force will continue to designate entities that meet the UFLPA’s criteria for inclusion on the Entity List, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection will continue its vigilant enforcement at our ports,” Silvers continued.

The Southern Shrimp Alliance, which had petitioned FLETF to consider adding eight Chinese seafood processing plants (see 2401290045), praised the inclusion of Shandong Meijia Group to the list. The company’s subsidiaries are active exporters of Argentine red shrimp to customers in the U.S. and Canada, according to the alliance.

“Shrimp supply chains have a disturbing pattern of profiting off of the globe’s most vulnerable populations. Argentinian red shrimp packed by Uyghurs in Chinese seafood processing plants should not be competing with wholesome products in American grocery stores,” the alliance’s executive director, John Williams, said in DHS’ release. “The Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force’s initiative to counter forced labor in seafood supply chains sends a strong message to U.S. seafood importers that chasing lower costs and higher margins cannot replace ethical and legal obligations.”

The alliance estimates that at least 12 million pounds of Argentine red shrimp processed in China were exported to the U.S. in 2023, with much of that sold in grocery stores and in restaurants as sushi. The group, which requested DHS to add the Chinese seafood processors to the entity list following an investigation by The Outlaw Ocean Project (see 2401110068), said it will continue to press the task force to give seafood in UFLPA enforcement a “priority sector” designation.

Austin Brush, an editor with Outlaw Ocean Project, noted in a Substack post that DHS is still reviewing whether other Chinese seafood processing companies should be included on the list. He urged readers to find updates on his group's investigations on Outlaw Ocean Project's website. The products of Shendong Meijia Group have appeared on the shelves of H-Mart grocery stores in the U.S. and Loblaw stores in Canada.

"The federal action is one of the most aggressive and consequential moves that U.S. government officials can take against a company," Brush said. "Seafood products tied to Meijia can only be imported into the U.S. in the future if Customs and Border Protection (CBP) determines that the goods were not produced with forced labor."

Shengong Meijia's products aren't the only ones that have been widely available in North American stores. The Congressional-Executive Commission on China urged the brands Skechers, K-Swiss and Brooks Running in a Tweet June 11 to pull shoes supplied by Dongguan Oasis from U.S. inventories.

So far, 68 entities have been added to the UFLPA Entity List since President Joe Biden signed the UFLPA into law in December 2021, according to DHS. Companies on the list reflect the following sectors: agriculture, apparel, batteries, chemicals, electronics, food additives, household appliances, nonferrous metals, polysilicon and plastics.

In response to the ruling, customs attorney Ted Murphy of Sidley Austin noted that DHS’ action was “not a surprise,” as the agency has recently been increasing the size of the UFLPA Entity List.

“We expect that FLETF will continue to add entities to the list throughout the rest of the year. Given the way DHS/FLETF adds companies to the UFLPA Entity List (i.e., almost no advance notice, almost no explanation as to why an entity is added, etc.), it can be quite disruptive (and very hard to predict),” Murphy’s note said. “As recent news reports about the auto industry demonstrate, all companies need to have a game plan in place for how they will respond to this type of development.”