On March 18, 2023, CBP will deploy the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Region Alert enhancement to the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). This enhancement will provide an early notification to importers and their representative of goods that may have been produced in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang or XUAR) and may be excluded from importation into the United States. This enhancement includes electronic data interchange (EDI) impacts.
The UFLPA was signed into law on December 23, 2021 (Public Law 117-78) and implemented on June 21, 2022. It supports U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) forced labor enforcement authorities and establishes a rebuttable presumption that all goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in the Xinjiang region of the People’s Republic of China, or by entities identified by the United States government on a UFLPA entities list, are prohibited from entry in the United States.
What will change for trade users?
The UFLPA Region Alert will add three new validations to ACE in specific applications.
The validations will be:
• Postal code will be a required field.
• Users will receive an error message if the postal code provided is not a valid Chinese postal code.
• 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) in the SE36 and/or SE56 record.
• Manufacturer Identification Code ($I) application – when creating or updating a Manufacturer Identification Code with a city located in The People’s Republic of China (CN).
This enhancement will provide the ability to update an existing MID with a postal code.
What do trade users need to do?
If the user receives a warning message, they should notify the importer(s) of the rebuttable presumption established by UFLPA.
Importers may request an exception to the rebuttable presumption from CBP during a detention, after an exclusion, or during the seizure process as described in the UFLPA
Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Region Alert Operational Guidance for Importers on page 9: https://www.cbp.gov/document/guidance/uflpa-operational-guidance-importers.
What additional resources are available?
• For questions about UFLPA Region Alert, contact
UFLPAINQUIRY@cbp.dhs.gov.
• Technical issues: Contact the ACE Help Desk by phone 866-530-4172 or via email at ace.support@cbp.dhs.gov.
• For additional information on the UFLPA, please visit: https://www.cbp.gov/trade/forced-labor/UFLPA.