Uyghur Human Rights Project Board Chair Nury Turkel told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that his nonprofit wants swift passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would create a rebuttable presumption that goods from China's Xinjiang province were made with forced labor. "The 11 current Withhold-release orders (WROs) are a wholly inadequate response to the gravity of the crimes, the harm to American workers whose wages are undercut by forced-labor competition, and the unwitting complicity of American consumers who buy face masks, hair weaves, cotton apparel, and solar panels produced by the forced labor of Muslim Uyghurs," he said in his prepared testimony.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from April 26-30 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Making sure the recent changes to bankruptcy law that affects custom brokers don't expire at the end of the year (see 2012210045) is the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's top priority, lobbyist Martin Whitmer said during a political update at the NCBFAA conference May 5. The group also is closely watching the 21st Century Customs Framework, renewal of the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, ACE funding, forced labor legislation, the infrastructure package and the highway bill. “Trade and freight movement are one of the top topics in D.C. right now,” he said. “Members of Congress want to learn from you.”
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs began a review of a proposed rule prohibiting goods made using forced labor. OIRA received the proposal from the Treasury Department's customs operations May 4. CBP has been working on regulatory changes for forced labor (see 1703130011) since the law was changed as part of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (see 1603010043).
Seventeen Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, led by New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, are asking the House Appropriations Committee to increase funding of CBP's Office of Trade by $50 million, with instructions that $25 million be dedicated to preventing the import of goods made with forced labor. Their letter, sent May 3, says CBP could use the extra money for origin tracing isotope technology, for its Advanced Trade Analytics Platform, and to hire and train 75 workers.
CBP seized a shipment 3.97 million nitrile disposable gloves in Cleveland under the forced labor finding issued by the agency earlier this year (see 2103260028), it said in a news release. “The gloves were produced in Malaysia by a subsidiary of Top Glove,” it said. “The estimated value of the shipment was $518,000.”
A proposed bill to create a rebuttable presumption of forced labor for goods made in China's Xinjiang province never came up in a discussion on how to move forward in combating forced labor hosted by the McCain Institute. The April 30 webinar called "Eliminating Human Trafficking and Forced Labor in Global Supply Chains: whose responsibility is it?" instead talked about how consumer pressure could convince companies to do more due diligence beyond first tier suppliers.
Former U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization Dennis Shea says a planned discussion at the WTO about matters that affect trade in cotton “must examine the trade impact of the use of forced labor to pick cotton in China’s Xinjiang province.” Shea, who was writing for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he is now an adjunct fellow, said “ignoring what is happening in Xinjiang would be tantamount to the WTO holding a meeting on global public health and trade without mentioning the Covid-19 pandemic. ... The use of forced labor in the province has likely depressed the global price of cotton, adversely impacted other cotton-exporting nations (particularly those in the developing world) and improperly distorted global trade flows,” and may even be a countervailable subsidy. Shea said the U.S. should raise the issue during the late May meeting.
CBP will take a look at how it can bring foreign-trade zones into the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, Thomas Overacker, CBP executive director-cargo and conveyance security, said April 28 during the virtual National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones spring seminar. “We've committed to explore how we can incorporate FTZs into the CTPAT program,” he said. “We've long considered the documentation and internal controls of your industry as best practices for security and supply chain integrity. It only makes sense that you receive the recognition that you deserve.”
The Federal Communications Commission is exploring whether untrusted vendors should be excluded from the FCC equipment authorization program, acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said April 26 at a virtual workshop on supply chain security, held in conjunction with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “When it comes to network security, the threats are real, the stakes are high, and our defenses need to constantly evolve and improve,” Rosenworcel said. Just saying no isn’t a strategy, “so we’re moving fast,” she said.