China CIQ Update

At 2:30 PM today, Liberty participated in a conference call with the US Department of Commerce that was arranged by RI Senator Reed's Legislative Director.  Together with Brent Cleaveland of the FJATA, we discussed the many challenges facing our clients and members with respect to implementation of the new CIQ rule for imitation jewelry in China and the detrimental affect its resulting delays have had on US businesses.  We reaffirmed our commitment to the importation of products that are safe for the US consumer along with the need to insure processes are as transparent as possible and don't overlap already existing safety and security measures.  Commerce indicated that the China government's implementation of the new rule could be in response to a US ICE enforcement action against a Chinese counterfeiting ring of some major US fashion branded jewelry.  In addition to the IPR issues in this case, there were concerns that the counterfeit jewelry was a lead hazard as well. 

Liberty and the FJATA are jointly presenting the Department of Commerce with a list of key concerns this afternoon.  Commerce's representative has promised to leverage several of their contacts in both the Qingdao and Yi Wu areas for assistance.  We'll have feedback from that request for you on Monday.  In the interim, should you have any specific concerns, please feel free to contact Karen Kenney at kkenney@libertyint.com.  We'll do our very best to get answers for you and to enlist the support of the appropriate government agencies at the federal level.  Our thanks to Senator Reed's office for their support and for arranging the conference call.