Trade fraud enforcement if you buy from China. The file lives in the factory.
On 14 July 2026, DOJ and DHS published the first Resource Guide to Trade Fraud Enforcement. Same day they said their task force had crossed $1 billion. Customs is no longer “pay the fine and move on.”
They are not asking if you trust your Chinese supplier. They are asking whether origin, value, and how the goods were made can be proven from inside the building.
We are not US trade counsel. We produce the China-side file your counsel and broker submit. Then you sit with us for 30 minutes and we name the next move.
What the Guide actually changed
1. Reasonable care cannot be handed to the factory or the broker. Your name is on the entry.
2. Almost every case starts with a problem of value, origin, composition, or labor conditions. Those four facts live in a building in China.
3. Liability runs past the importer of record. Distributors and brands who “just bought it” can still be in it if they knew or looked away. Forced labor is written up as trade fraud. UFLPA priority sectors are now twelve, not four.
What fails
A letter from the trading company
An Alibaba badge
"My broker handles it”
A Vietnam or Malaysia sticker on a China-made good
A Hong Kong invoice for a Guangdong factory
A factory tour that was in a different city than the license
Screenshots lose. A signed file from the building does not.
What we pull On Site
Legal entity vs the name on your PI and the name on the bank
Whether the address is a factory or a desk
Origin trail: who made it, who sold it, what was transformed, where
Input and labor map enough to survive a CBP question
Dated photos, affidavits, payment trail that matches the invoices
If a CF-28, CF-29, UFLPA hold, or detention is already in your inbox, we build that packet through Asia Agent after you say yes on the call.
Who this call is for
You have a CBP letter or a hold
You are about to wire and the story feels thin
Your supplier said “we ship from Vietnam now”
Your lawyer or broker told you they need China-side evidence
You read the July Guide and realized the file does not exist yet
What happens on the call
Frequently Asked Questions
No. We are not US trade counsel. We produce the China-side evidence your counsel and broker file. CBP and DOJ decide.
They file what you give them. They cannot walk the factory, match the chop to the license, or trace inputs on the floor. Reasonable care stays with the importer of record. The broker is not a substitute.
Book the call and bring the letter. Do not send the factory’s English “certificate” as your whole file. The clock is on the notice. We tell you on the call whether a factory-side packet can be built in time.
A trail that exists in ordinary business records: who the legal entity is, where production happens, what went in, what came out, who paid whom, and how the goods moved. Self-signed letters with no floor proof fail.
Not if the last substantial transformation still happened in China, or if inputs trace to a listed entity. A third-country invoice is not origin. That is one of the first things we check on the floor.
No. It tells importers the file has to exist before they ask. Most US files stop at the broker. The missing half is in China. That is the work.
Same law. Different clock. LA/Long Beach is where a lot of China cargo meets CBP. If your box is sitting there, book and say which terminal and which entry number you have.
Same. NY/NJ is the other high-volume China gateway. Bring the entry and the notice. We do not need to be in the port. We need to be in the factory.
Yes. The port is where CBP holds the box. The proof is still in China. On the call, say the port. We do not pretend we have an office there.
Good. Send them to the call or book it yourself and loop them in after. Lawyers need a China-side file. They rarely have a person who can be at the gate this week.
No. No sourcing. No factory commission. One side: yours.
Entity and USCC vs the name on the PI and the bank. Address vs real floor. Origin and transformation story. Input invoices. Payment trail. Dated photos. Affidavits the factory will put a chop on. Enough to hand your broker and counsel.
Paper check can start after the call. A visit is scheduled in days, not months, if the factory will open the door. A live CBP letter is first in line.
The call is to name the problem and the next paid job. We do not quote the job in chat.
Book anyway. Silent factory, stuck deposit, wrong goods, first import, flying in — same calendar. If it is a CBP file, we say so in the first ten minutes.
Related
- CBP compliance / UFLPA work
- Why your broker can’t fix what the factory broke
- Employee in China
Do you need help in China?
CBP letter, silent factory, origin story, or you just need a person on the ground. 30 minutes.
Book
+86 15322086875
On the ground
Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen, Yiwu and Jinan.