The Congressional Research Service, in an updated report last week on the ban on goods made with forced labor in the Trade Act of 1930, highlighted how the U.S. has used negotiations in free trade agreements to try to expand the bans on goods made with forced labor.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to make sure that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service doesn't prematurely end its ban on livestock imports from Mexico.
A discussion draft modifying a carbon border tax bill narrows the product list, removing fossil fuels, chemicals and other goods that were original targets of the Senate bill, which was introduced a year ago (see 2311030006).
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to open a Section 301 trade investigation on Chinese garlic growers, arguing that the sector is subsidized by forced labor and "other unfair and unethical trade practices."
Restricting de minimis was never a natural fit for the defense policy bill, one of only two major bills expected to get a vote in the lame duck session of Congress. A bill to fund the government past Dec. 20 is the other.
Four senators, a pair from both parties, introduced a bill that would authorize the U.S. trade representative, with consultation with Congress about objectives, to negotiate specialized trade agreements focused on critical minerals and rare earth elements. Those trade agreements would also need to get a vote of approval from Congress before they could enter into force.
A bipartisan duo have introduced a bill that would require the administration to establish a "Denied Parties List" for exporters wishing to send packages under the de minimis exclusion, based on at least three past shipments of counterfeits, illegal drugs, or goods made with forced labor.
The House passed a bill that would create a task force in DOJ to increase prosecutions of tariff evasion, violations of the forced labor provision and ban on goods made in North Korea, trade-based money laundering and smuggling. The bill passed by a voice vote Dec. 3.
A bill that was recommended by the House Transportation Committee in May is now ready for a vote by the full House, if leadership chooses to do so, as the committee's report was completed this week.
More than 30 organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, asked House and Senate leadership to hold a vote on the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program during the lame duck session next month.