The US Customs and Border Protection launched an interactive dashboard in March last year under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act or ULFPA to make the enforcement of the law more transparent.
The CBP dashboard aims to offer a unified data source on UFLPA enforcement actions while protecting sensitive trade information.
According to the data, in 2023 Vietnam accounted for the highest shipment value for apparel, footwear and textiles sector at $19.14m, followed by China at $17.70m and all other countries sat at $1.07m with Cambodia recorded at $0.63m, Nicaragua at $0.68m and Sri Lanka at $1.03m.
Overview of UFLPA statistics from January to December 2023
- Apparel, footwear and textiles accounted for 786 shipments out of a total of 4,193 shipments, placing it in third position after Electronics (1,470), and Industrial and Manufacturing materials (900).
- The number of apparel, footwear and textile shipments denied were 430 (55%) out of the total 786 with 273 released (35%).
- 83 apparel, footwear and textile shipments are pending which equates to 11% of the total.
- The total value of the apparel, footwear and textile shipments was $40m.
From the implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to May 2023, a total of 679 shipments amounting to $40.54m were stopped with Malaysia accounting for the highest shipment value at that time.
CBP said at the time: "Third-country manufacturing, where countries beyond China produce goods made with inputs from Xinjiang, is becoming increasingly common.” Since there is no de minimis threshold for the UFLPA, any product that contains even a trace amount of inputs made with forced labour is subject to possible enforcement action.”
