ACE to Require China Postal Code Reporting Under UFLPA

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will crack down on its Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) enforcement by requiring importers to report China postal code data in ACE.

This new protocol aims to find inbound items that originate in regions of China that are known or suspected to employ forced labor by the minority Uyghur population. The UFLPA prohibits the importation of such items as a rebuke to the Chinese government for its treatment of the Uyghur population.

New ACE Reporting Procedures Incoming

CBP has listed new protocols for the UFLPA update in ACE on its website.

“The UFLPA Region Alert will add three new validations that will be performed when Country of Origin is China for Entry and for Manufacturer Identification Code (MID) creation for both Trade and CBP users: 

• Postal code will be a required field. 
• Users would receive an error message if the postal code provided is not a valid Chinese postal code.
• Users will receive a warning message when a Uyghur region postal code has been provided. 
• Includes EDI Impacts.”

Timeline for Updates in Flux

CBP had originally slated these updates for November 2022. However, a recent update to the ACE update calendar now targets deployment date of “TBD”. Some other sources have cited a tentative December 15 launch date.

While these updated procedures may no longer be as imminent, it still is essential that those shippers importing from China properly prepare for the change. Scarbrough International is planning for these updates and will guide clients accordingly once they arrive.

If you have any questions about ACE, UFLPA, or other variables around importing from China, contact our team.