Tougher U.S. Enforcement Is Here. Will Your Supply Chain Withstand Regulatory Scrutiny?

Recent U.S. regulatory developments are raising the bar for importers. From the tariffs that followed the Section 301 investigations to Executive Order 14411: Strengthening Customs Enforcement, the direction is towards a more active era of trade compliance. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the agency responsible for enforcing these measures, has made its expectations clear: businesses must know their supply chains and be ready to support sourcing and origin claims with objective evidence.

So, what exactly has changed, and why does it matter for your supply chain?

Keeping up with regulatory developments:

Section 301 investigations: 

In July 2026, the U.S. introduced new tariffs on sixty trading partners following the conclusion of forced labor-related Section 301 investigations. It is one of the most significant U.S. trade enforcement actions in recent years, with each country's tariff level linked to how effectively it prevents goods made with forced labor from entering supply chains.

The measures pay close attention to transshipment and origin obfuscation, practices that use third countries to disguise where goods were actually produced. As a result, businesses can expect closer scrutiny of country-of-origin declarations and the evidence behind them.

Because tariff rates now vary from country to country, origin claims have direct commercial consequences. An inaccurate declaration is no longer just a compliance issue. It can mean facing penalties or having shipments held at the border.

Executive Order 14411: 

Signed on June 3, 2026, Executive Order 14411: Strengthening Customs Enforcement directs CBP to close the loopholes that let importers avoid duties or bring in prohibited goods, and to increase supply chain transparency.

Enforcement priorities include forced labor, misclassification, and undervaluation. The order also introduces tougher eligibility rules for importers, higher minimum penalties, and more audits. Together, these measures make it clear that businesses must be able to stand behind every claim they make about their supply chain.

To put the order into practice, CBP published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on September 2, 2026, seeking public input on how to improve visibility into the supply chains of goods entering the U.S. 

Measures under consideration include requiring importers to obtain and retain documentation from foreign exporters, encouraging wider use of supply chain tracing technologies, and collecting more information about the parties involved in the import process. Although the rules are not yet final, importers are likely to be expected to show not just what they are bringing in, but where and how it was made.

UFLPA, WROs and Customs Enforcement:

Forced labor enforcement is not new. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), in force since June 2022, set a new standard in U.S. trade law. It introduced a rebuttable presumption that goods with links to a designated high-risk region, or entities on the UFLPA Entity List, are made with forced labor and are barred from entry. To date, over 44,000 shipments have been detained by CBP under UFLPA.

Separately, CBP can issue Withhold Release Orders (WROs) to detain shipments at the border when there is reasonable suspicion of forced labor anywhere in the supply chain. 

In both cases, the burden of proof sits with the importer. To get goods released, businesses must provide clear and convincing evidence of where their products and materials come from. Compliance and market access are now directly linked, and products are at risk if origin can't be verified.

False Claims Act: 

The risks of getting origin wrong now go well beyond detained shipments. U.S. authorities are increasingly using the False Claims Act (FCA) to pursue trade-related cases, including origin misrepresentation, tariff evasion, customs fraud and misclassification of goods. 

The FCA allows the government to recover up to three times the losses it suffered, plus penalties, and whistleblowers can bring cases on its behalf. FCA enforcement is also at record levels. The U.S. Department of Justice recovered more than $6.8 billion under the Act in fiscal year 2025, the highest annual total in its history. For businesses, supply chain claims now carry material financial, legal and reputational exposure, and inaccurate origin declarations can become costly very quickly.

How to withstand regulatory scrutiny

Regulators increasingly expect businesses to look beyond supplier declarations and paper records. Documentation is still essential, but government guidance and enforcement developments point towards stronger origin assurance and independent validation. One-off checks and supplier declarations are no longer enough on their own.

Oritain's own data shows why. Our 2026 Supply Chain Intelligence Report found that 90% of brands analyzed through our Market Insights Programme had at least one result consistent with cotton from high-risk regions, up from 64% the previous year. This rise came even though 87% of U.S. companies say they currently trace their supply chains.

Not being able to verify origin carries a real cost. The same report found that 37% of U.S. brands have faced regulatory or compliance challenges, and a similar share have faced lawsuits or fines.

Investment in traceability is growing, and that is an important step towards managing risk and staying compliant. But traceability shows how a product is claimed to have moved through the supply chain. Origin verification tests whether that claim is true. Leading organizations are now combining the two through a programmatic approach to verification, using continuous testing and analysis to gain ongoing visibility of risk across materials, regions and supplier tiers.

For businesses, the challenge is no longer simply documenting origin. It is verifying it.

How forensic origin verification can help future-proof your supply chain

As U.S. enforcement tightens, businesses need independent evidence that their origin claims are true. Oritain verifies where products and raw materials really come from by analyzing the natural chemical signatures within them. Every material carries a fingerprint shaped by the environment where it was grown or produced. By comparing that fingerprint with our reference data, we can test whether a claimed origin is consistent with reality. Unlike paperwork, it can't be altered or lost as goods move through the supply chain.

Through our verification programs, we help organizations across industries to:

• Strengthen trust in their supply chains
• Support due diligence with objective, science-based evidence
• Make better-informed sourcing, compliance and risk decisions

Oritain's Membership Program takes this a step further. It connects a global community of origin-verified buyers and suppliers committed to responsible sourcing. Built on independently verified data, this shared ecosystem lets brands, suppliers and manufacturers strengthen accountability across the value chain, turning visibility into intelligence they can act on.

The direction of U.S. enforcement is clear. The businesses best placed to respond will be those that can verify their supply chains before regulators ask.