China's Ministry of Commerce said the recent U.S. decision to add three Chinese entities to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List (see 2309260035) "has no factual basis and lacks transparency," according to an unofficial translation. Dubbing the move a "typical act of economic bullying," the ministry said the additions suppress Chinese firms and seriously distort the facts surrounding the situation in the Xinjiang region. It said there is no forced labor in Xinjiang, saying the additions were made solely in the name of undermining Xinjiang's prosperity and stability. "China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises," the ministry said.
On a panel on critical minerals ally-shoring, panelists representing the perspective of Latin America, the U.S., the EU and, to some degree, China, agreed that the current race to lock down supplies of the raw materials needed for advanced batteries, wind turbines and computer chips is one where every man is out for himself, and resource-rich countries in the Global South are exploited.
Leaders of the World Trade Organization said during the group's annual forum that the WTO should be involved in coordinating clean steel standards and trade policies that encourage decarbonization in steelmaking.
Allegations that Diesel Canada, Hugo Boss Canada and Walmart Canada purchase garments that were made in part with Uyghur forced labor -- complaints that rely on Australian Strategic Policy Institute reporting in 2020 and Sheffield Hallam University reports -- will progress to a fact-finding investigation after the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) found that the companies' responses weren't satisfactory.
Canada is choosing to call for a binational panel to determine whether the countervailing duty order on its softwood lumber exports is fair, but is challenging the antidumping order at the Court of International Trade.
Contractual language against forced labor may not be enough to meet increasing supply chain due diligence regulations, particularly as the EU implements its corporate sustainability due diligence directive (see 2202230073 and 2306010022), Ernst & Young advisers said this week. Although there is still debate about how broadly the bloc’s new rules will be scoped, the advisers warned companies against blinding themselves to rising government expectations.
Canada will participate as a third party in the U.S.-Mexico dispute over Mexico’s ban on genetically engineered corn in tortillas and dough, the country announced Aug. 25. Mary Ng, Canada’s trade minister, said she “shares the concerns of the United States that Mexico is not compliant with the science and risk analysis obligations under” the USMCA’s sanitary and phytosanitary measures chapter. “Canada believes that the measures taken by Mexico are not scientifically supported and have the potential to unnecessarily disrupt trade in the North American market,” Ng said.
Trade ministers from the G-20 nations reaffirmed the role of the World Trade Organization, pledged to promote resilient global value chains and said they will increase transparency of sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade within the WTO.
Taiwan is requiring a certificate of origin and customs approval before certain Chinese-origin chipmaking equipment can be shipped to the U.S. The requirement will apply to shipments of certain “machine tools operated by laser processes, of a kind used solely or principally for the manufacture of printed circuits, printed circuit assemblies, parts” or “parts of automatic data processing machines,” Taiwan's Bureau of Foreign Trade announced this month.
China fined Mintz Group, an American due diligence services firm, $1.5 million for allegedly conducting "unapproved statistical work," The Wall Street Journal reported Aug. 21. This comes after China raided Mintz Group's office in March and detained five officials, the report said (see 2305260054).