DHS Ups Textile Enforcement Efforts

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is launching an enhanced strategy to combat illicit trade and support the American textile industry, with collaborative efforts between U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

The enforcement plan includes targeting small package shipments to prevent the entry of illicit goods, conducting joint CBP-HSI operations for cargo compliance, expanding audits and foreign verifications, and broadening the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List.

Key actions are improving package screening for textile violations, conducting physical inspections and testing for cargo compliance, assessing risks through customs audits, increasing education for stakeholders, and leveraging industry partnerships to facilitate legitimate trade.

The new enforcement plan focuses on the following actions:

• Cracking down on small package shipments to prohibit illicit goods from U.S.markets by improving screening of packages claiming the Section 321 de minimis exemption for textile, UFLPA, and other violations, including expanded targeting, laboratory and isotopic testing, and focused enforcement operations.
• Conducting joint CBP-HSItrade special operations to ensure cargo compliance. This includes physical inspections; country-of-origin, isotopic, and composition testing; and in-depth reviews of documentation. CBP will issue civil penalties for violations of U.S. laws and coordinate with HSI to develop and conduct criminal investigations when warranted.
• Better assessing risk by expanding customs audits and increasing foreign verifications. DHS personnel will conduct comprehensive audits and textile production verification team visits to high-risk foreign facilities to ensure that textiles qualify under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) or the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). CBP recently visited 31 facilities in Mexico—the first such visits under USMCA—as well as 18 facilities in Honduras, and is on track to double the number of total foreign verification visits compared to last year.
• Building stakeholder awareness by engaging in an education campaign to ensure that importers and suppliers in the CAFTA-DR and USMCA region understand compliance requirements and are aware of CBP’s enforcement efforts.
• Leveraging U.S. and Central American industry partnershipsto improve facilitation for legitimate trade.
• Expandingthe UFLPA Entity List to identify malign suppliers for the trade community through review of additional entities in the high-priority textile sector for inclusion in the UFLPA Entity List.

In January, Secretary Mayorkas met with members of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) to discuss current challenges in the textile industry. NCTO explained the significant harm that the textile industry is suffering at the hands of unscrupulous individuals and entities who create an unfair market by circumventing the operation of our nation’s free trade agreements, violating the UFLPA, and exploiting the de minimis shipment exception that is established in law.

 Following the meeting, the Secretary directed the Department to provide him with a new comprehensive enforcement action plan to increase and expedite their work to combat illegal customs practices that harm the American textile industry.

The U.S. textile industry is a vital domestic industrial base for U.S. national and economic security, accounting for over 500,000 U.S. jobs. Domestic textile producers are an essential component of U.S. health care security, serving as the domestic supply chain for critical personal protective equipment and other health supplies, as well as defense, supplying more than 8,000 different products to the U.S. military. Without a domestic textile industry, the United States would be vulnerable to and reliant on non-U.S. producers to supply these essential products.

Last month, Vice President Harris also announced a new initiative between the U.S. and Guatemala to advance secure trade in textiles and apparel by encouraging engagement, including with existing government-to-industry stakeholder partnerships such as CBP’s Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism Program and the Superintendence of Tax Administration of Guatemala’s Authorized Economic Operator Program.

“DHS is committed to expanding the UFLPA Entity List and sending a strong message to the importing community that the United States has zero tolerance for forced labor in our supply chains,” said Robert Silvers, Under Secretary for Policy and Chair of the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force. “Enforcing our forced labor laws protects human rights and businesses and workers who play by the rules and should not be undercut by predatory and abusive labor practice.”