US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said all ports are detaining seafood related to Chinese fishing vessels suspected of using forced labor.
The CBP issued a withholding order for the vessel Zhen FA 7 on May 28th, ordering all US port officers to block the invasion of seafood harvested from Chinese flapping vessels.
The CBP said it has identified reasonable suspicion of forced labor, abusive labor and living conditions, physical and sexual violence, debt constraints, maintaining worker identity documents, and other issues. According to a press release, these have subtracted Zhen Fa 7 labor costs below market value and gave “unfairly acquired profits” in ways that undercut American companies.
Currently, CBP has 52 active withholding orders, of which 36 are related to China-related entities.
The 1930 Customs Act prohibits the import of goods committed by prisoners or forced labour, and in 2022, a significant expansion was made with the enactment of the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act (UFLPA), which blocked the import of goods manufactured by forced labour in New Jiang.
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The US has determined that China’s communist regime is systematically using forced labor in the new jiang, where most of Chinese cotton is produced. Xinjiang also has many of China’s mining operations.
This cargo falls into a wide range of categories including automobiles and aerospace, electronics, apparel, consumer products, agriculture, basic metals, pharmaceuticals, and machinery.
All items don’t come directly from China, often from Southeast Asia. Many of the cargoes were from Malaysia, Vietnam, or Thailand. These countries manufacture many products sold to the United States using materials that originated from China.
