E-commerce marketplace Temu is looking to hire a compliance officer based in the US, job ads showed, after lawmakers scrutinised the Chinese company for allegedly lax practices and policies related to blocking goods from the Xinjiang region.
Temu, launched by parent PDD Holdings in the US in September, sells products like $9 dresses and $6 shorts from merchants in China.
Its total value of goods sold in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand reached $634.8 million in April, according to the latest available data from market research firm Yipit.
Temu is seeking a US-based compliance officer to develop policies and procedures relating to its financial operations, such as anti-money laundering, licensing requirements and reporting obligations, according to a LinkedIn job posting seen by Reuters.
It is also looking to hire a lawyer specialising in trade compliance to help Temu create a protocol for screening merchandise, another posting showed.
Temu did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
The US House Select Committee on the China Communist Party in May launched an investigation into retailers’ connections to forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region, including any efforts to comply with the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act.
The committee last week released preliminary findings stating that Temu “does not have any system to ensure compliance” with the act. Temu’s 80,000 “suppliers agree to boilerplate terms and conditions that prohibit the use of forced labour,” the report said.
Other US lawmakers are seeking to restrict the “de minimis” tariff exemption widely used by e-commerce sellers to send orders from China to the United States.
A federal brief in April said Temu and Chinese-owned rival Shein “exploit” the exemption to avoid duties and import illegal items such as those made in the Xinjiang region with forced labour. Shein has previously denied using forced labour.
Rights groups accuse Beijing of abuses, including forced labour and placing 1 million or more Uyghurs — a mainly Muslim ethnic group — in internment camps in Xinjiang.
China vigorously denies such abuses and says it established “vocational training centres” to curb terrorism, separatism and religious radicalism.
By Arriana McLymore
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US Lawmakers Find ‘Extremely High Risk’ That Products Sold on Temu Are Linked to Forced Labour
A congressional report says the Chinese-owned e-commerce business has insufficient systems in place to prevent goods made by forced labour being sold on its platform.
