Antidumping and countervailing duties on solar cells and modules from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are now set to take effect in June 2024, after the Commerce Department continued to find in final determinations announced Aug. 18 that imports from the four Southeast Asian countries are circumventing AD/CVD on solar cells from China (A-570-979/C-570-980).

A new report from a human rights research group reveals over 200 recent allegations of labor abuses in Myanmar’s garment industry and highlights the due diligence challenges faced by fashion companies and other businesses sourcing from the region. The report, produced by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, said abuse allegations have spiked since the country’s military coup in 2021, and have included wage reductions, wage theft and forced overtime.

The Court of International Trade in an Aug. 17 opinion appeared to leave the door open for the government to collect additional duties in court cases filed by importers challenging denied protests. In the latest in a series of recently issued decisions finding the government can't file counterclaims in denied protest cases, Judge Gary Katzmann reclassified a government counterclaim as a defense, but said importer Second Nature Designs may be liable for more duties if that defense prevails.

A former Mexican economy secretary, Ildefonso Guajardo, who oversaw the NAFTA renegotiation, said Mexico's current administration has not complied with the energy provisions in the trade agreement, and has "tried to disrupt trade in corn, using excuses of sanitary issues" and genetic modifications. He said in both cases, the trade disagreements "have become part of the full political negotiation" that includes migration and also includes fentanyl and security issues.

The Court of International Trade on Aug. 16 denied a motion by importer Wanxiang America to dismiss a penalty case related to its alleged misclassification and failure to pay associated antidumping duties on tapered roller bearings.

First Solar, a U.S.-based solar panel manufacturer, said a third-party audit found that its factories in Malaysia had workers who were victims of forced labor. The company disclosed the finding in its 2023 sustainability report, adding that some of its migrant employees were "subjected to unethical recruitment," passport retention practices and "unlawful retention of wages."

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DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller must respond to allegations of forced labor used in imported cocoa from Côte d’Ivoire by seven major chocolate companies, the International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates) said in its Aug. 15 complaint at the Court of International Trade. The suit aims to force DHS and CBP to issue a decision in response to a 2020 petition filed by IRAdvocates along with Corporate Accountability Lab, and the University of California Irvine Law School's Human Rights Clinic (UCI) (International Rights Advocates v. Alejandro Mayorkas and Troy Miller, CIT # 23-00165).

The Federal Maritime Commission is investigating the Mediterranean Shipping Company for violating U.S. shipping regulations, including by using “overbroad” merchant clauses in its bills of lading, mishandling fees and failing to publish tariff rates. The agency may fine MSC if it determines the carrier violated the Shipping Act.

A bipartisan duo introduced a bill in the House that would not allow future Section 232 tariffs or quotas without congressional approval, and would give Congress the ability to end the current steel and aluminum tariffs and quotas.