UFLPA – Postal Code Required for Chinese Suppliers (Action Required)
Trade Update • February 2, 2023
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Region Alert enhancement will be deployed to the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) on March 18, 2023 — a major announcement from United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Under the UFLPA, implemented June 21, 2022, there is a presumption that all goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced or manufactured wholly or in part in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China, or by other entities identified by CBP on a published UFLPA entities list, are prohibited entry into the US.
The new enhancement will require importers to provide the postal code of their Chinese suppliers so that CBP can identify if the imported goods originated in the XUAR. This is essential in eliminating the risk of goods made with forced labor entering the American market. Also, because the data is being transmitted to CBP prior to the arrival of the goods, it gives Importers an early warning notification of goods that may have originated in the XUAR and may be excluded from entry into the U.S.
The UFLPA Region Alert will add three new validations to entry reporting in ACE:
- Postal code will be a required field.
- Trade users will receive an error message if the postal code provided is not a valid Chinese postal code.
- Trade users will receive a warning message when a XUAR region postal code is provided.
The specific applications impacted will be:
- Cargo Release (SE) application: only for the Manufacturer (MF) party and only when the country is reported as The People’s Republic of China (CN)
- Manufacturer Identification Code ($I) application: when creating or updating a Manufacturer Identification Code with a city in The People’s Republic of China (CN).
This enhancement will allow users to update an existing MID with a postal code.
Next Steps for Importers
If you currently import — or are planning to import — goods from China, please get in touch with our U.S. Client Care Team via email – usclientcare@ghy.com and share with them the postal codes of your Chinese suppliers. This way, we can add them to our database before the enhancement goes into effect and advise you on the next steps.
Resources
Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Region Alert
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