The Big Picture: What is the UFPLA (Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act)?

Who is affected?

• Do you sell apparel, textile or cotton products in the US?

• Are any of your suppliers (or your suppliers’ suppliers) based in China?

If you answered “yes” to either of the above questions then the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act (UFLPA) applies to you.

What is the Act about?

In effect from June 2022, the Act presumes that cotton and textile goods from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China (XUAR) have been produced using forced labour. 

Irrespective of your business size, you need to undertake heightened due diligence across all entities, manufacturers and exporters for cotton and textile products that are imported into the United States from China.

Some facts

If you use cotton in your products and export textiles to the USA then this act applies to you.

• Almost all the cotton produced in China comes from the XUAR, estimated at around 85% (Source: RFA)

• The US government has suggested forced labour could affect hundreds of thousands of cotton and textile workers in the XUAR 

• China accounts for around 20% of all cotton production globally (Source: Trend Economy)

• Cotton is the world’s second most used fibre, accounting for around 25% of global fibre production (Source: Common Objective)

What is heightened due diligence? What do I need to do to be compliant?

Here are some suggestions for possible steps you can take to gain and communicate greater supply chain visibility. When importing products to the United States you need to demonstrate that the goods are outside the scope of the UFLPA, or provide evidence that the goods and any of their inputs are sourced completely from outside the XUAR and overcome the UFLPA’s presumption of forced labour.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of the types of evidence you can show to prove this.

• Confirmation that your suppliers are not on the UFLPA targeted Entity List

• Evidence mapping your entire supply chain, and transport along the supply chain, including the entities involved at each stage; 

• Bill of materials;

• Purchase orders or payment records;

• List of production steps and records (detailing procurement from raw material to finished good);

• Supplier code of conducts and onboarding documents

• Transportation documents between suppliers (including raw materials suppliers);

• Sourcing contracts with your suppliers

What happens if I can’t show this evidence?

Seizure of shipments. This could be a delay or in a worst case forfeiture.

1. The imposition of civil penalties equivalent to the value of the merchandise involved. You could get fined the value of your products.

2. The imposition of civil penalties equivalent to the value of the merchandise involved. You could get fined the value of your products.

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is already enforcing the act. In August alone, seizures increased seven fold to 838 seizures valued at $266.5 million (Source: CBP).

How can Bendi help?

1. Complete our UFLPA checklist to see how prepared you are and receive a gap analysis of what’s missing

2. Software to support you in collating the evidence you need to be complainant

3. Automated reports you can attach with your shipments to be compliant at the point of import to the USA

Get in touch hello@bendi.ai