This year's version of the Senate Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, harmonized with the House version, passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee June 24 by a unanimous voice vote. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., would create a rebuttable presumption that all goods produced in China's Xinjiang region were made with forced labor. Before the vote, Rubio said that there are 1,500 companies located in or near more than 100 mass detention facilities. "This is slavery. As simple as that. American companies argue that their supply chains are clean. What this bill says is: 'Prove it. Especially if it's coming out of Xinjiang.'" Rubio said he expects it will be impossible to prove there's no forced labor involved in the goods in most cases.
A withhold release order on silicon produced by Hoshine Silicon Industry Co., Ltd., a company located in China's Xinjiang province, and its subsidiaries, was based on credible reports that workers were subject to intimidation and threats, and that they had their movements restricted, the acting CBP commissioner said during a press conference June 24. The material produced by Hoshine is a primary input in solar panels.
CBP will be detaining silica-based products made by Hoshine Silicon Industry Co., Ltd. and its subsidiaries under a new withhold release order, the White House announced June 24. The agency said there is information that indicates that Hoshine used forced labor in manufacturing these products. The polysilicon produced in the Xinjiang region of China is a core material in solar panels made in Asia.
The moderator of a panel on the results of the president's visit to Europe asked the European Union's ambassador to the U.S., Stavros Lambrinidis, what he would say to critics who say that nothing was solved on the EU-U.S. irritants? Those critics say that the can was just kicked down the road.
The Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee expressed disappointment at the Generalized System of Preferences bill introduced by the Trade Subcommittee chairman, so they introduced their own version, which is identical to the amendment that passed the Senate with 91 votes. The bill, introduced June 22 by the top Republicans on the committee and the subcommittee, also renews the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, but with a few more products removed from the list after additional objections in the House. According to an analysis by Crowell and Moring, the Senate MTB covers 1,423 products, and the House Democrats' version covers 1,363 products. A spokesperson for Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., said the Republican bill covers the same MTB list as the Democrats' bill.
Senate Finance Subcommittee on International Trade Chairman Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., and ranking member Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, agree that the U.S. should be in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but the expert witnesses at the hearing they held June 22 showed no path to the U.S. reentering the agreement with the 11 countries that went on to seal the deal. This was despite agreement among most subcommittee members (though not Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio) and the witnesses that leaving TPP was a tactical mistake that leaves the U.S. at a trade and geopolitical disadvantage.
The Mexican government told the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative that it will look into the allegation that workers' rights were violated at the Tridonex plant in Matamoros, and that it will share the results of the review no later than July 24. The Mexican government sent the letter June 18, it announced in a June 19 press release. The AFL-CIO had asked USTR to bring the complaint under the Rapid Response mechanism of USMCA, and USTR agreed to do so (see 2106100011).
Canada has requested a state-to-state dispute panel over the U.S. safeguard tariffs against Canadian solar cells and panels, because under USMCA, and NAFTA before it, safeguards are not supposed to apply in North America if the exports from either Canada or Mexico are not contributing to serious injury in the domestic market. The International Trade Commission said Canada was not contributing to the harm to the U.S. solar manufacturing industry. Several members of the Washington state delegation to Congress have also argued Canada should not be a target, both for that reason, and because exempting Canada could add to jobs in solar manufacturing in their state (see 2106090066).
Eighteen House members, led by Reps. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., and Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., introduced the Nicaragua Free Trade Review Act, which requires the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to review Nicaragua's compliance with the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) within 60 days of the bill becoming law. “Under Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua has become a land of oppression” Salazar said in a June 17 news release. “Ortega's thugs are jailing political opponents and violently silencing dissenting voices. I've introduced the Nicaragua Free Trade Review Act because trade with the United States is a privilege, not a right. We must show Ortega's regime that they cannot continue repressing the Nicaraguan people while reaping the economic benefits of free trade with the United States.”
Former Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, testifying at a Senate Homeland Security subcommittee hearing, said that in order to implement more withhold release orders, the Department of Homeland Security needs more resources to do investigations in the foreign countries where forced labor is alleged.