By Arriana McLymore
NEW YORK (Reuters) – E-commerce marketplace Temu is looking to hire a compliance officer based in the U.S., job ads showed, after lawmakers scrutinized 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 U.S. in September, sells products like $9 dresses and $6 shorts from merchants in China.
Its total value of goods sold in the U.S., 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 U.S.-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 with a specialty 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 U.S. House Select Committee on the China Communist Party in May launched an investigation into retailers’ connections to forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region, including any efforts to comply with the Uyghur Forced Labor 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 labor,” the report said.
Other U.S. 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 Xingiang region with forced labor. Shein has previously denied using forced labor.
Rights groups accuse Beijing of abuses including forced labor 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 centers” to curb terrorism, separatism and religious radicalism.
(Reporting by Arriana McLymore in New York; Editing by Jamie Freed)
