The Treasury Department published its fall 2021 regulatory agenda for CBP. The agenda includes a new mention of an interim final rule to implement some major provisions of the USMCA. The agency seems to have missed the listed target date of November 2021 for the interim final rule.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act “maliciously denigrates the human rights situation in China’s Xinjiang in disregard of facts and truth,” a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson said at a Dec. 24 regular press conference, according to an English translation. President Joe Biden signed the measure into law Dec. 23 (see 2112230018). U.S. allegations of forced labor and genocide in Xinjiang “are nothing but vicious lies concocted by anti-China forces,” the spokesperson said. The U.S. “is engaging in political manipulation and economic coercion, and seeking to undermine Xinjiang’s prosperity and stability and contain China’s development under the pretext of human rights,” he said. “China deplores and firmly rejects this” new U.S. law.
President Joe Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Act Dec. 23. Under the act, the rebuttable presumption that goods with a nexus to China's Xinjiang province are made with forced labor will begin June 21.
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CBP issued a withhold release order on disposable gloves “produced in Malaysia by Brightway Holdings Sdn Bhd, Biopro (M) Sdn Bhd, and Biopro (M) Sdn Bhd (collectively, Brightway Group)," the agency said in a news release Dec. 20. Brightway is one of several Malaysian companies named in recent forced labor allegations by Andy Hall, a British human rights activist (see 2105240022). “Forced Labor is a human rights abuse inflicted upon 25 million people worldwide,” CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said. “CBP will not allow goods tainted with forced labor to make their way into American households and businesses.”
The Seafood Import Monitoring Program Expansion that was going to be in the bipartisan infrastructure bill did not become law, but H.R. 3075 passed out of the House Natural Resources Committee in October, and the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America is warning the majority leader that he should not schedule a vote in the chamber for the bill.
Liberty Shared, an anti-slavery non-governmental organization, recently filed a petition with CBP to "investigate the possibility that seafood imports from Ireland" involve forced labor, the International Transport Workers' Federation said in a blog post. “The President of the EU Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, has issued a number of statements over the last few months ostensibly taking a firm stand against forced labour and human trafficking," said Michael O'Brien, ITWF fisheries campaign lead. A CBP "investigation into an EU Member State should make European officials sit up and take notice." Liberty Shared, which previously filed petitions with CBP about British online fashion retailer Boohoo and UK apparel suppliers (see 2103030055), didn't return a request for comment. Liberty Shared's Managing Director Duncan Jebson said on LinkedIn that he is pleased to get support from ITWF.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was able to get unanimous consent for a bill that will create a rebuttable presumption that goods with Xinjiang content are made with forced labor. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which was already approved in the House, now heads to the president's desk. After it is signed, agencies will have 180 days to develop guidance for importers on due diligence and what sort of evidence would be adequate to prove goods are not made with forced labor. The shift of the burden of proof to importers will also begin 180 days after enactment.
Now that the bill that would create a rebuttable presumption that goods with Xinjiang inputs were made with forced labor has passed Congress and will likely be signed by President Biden, apparel trade groups and retail trade groups say they're ready to work with the administration on the strategy to implement the law.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sought unanimous consent to pass the compromise text of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act on Dec. 15, but Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., prevented quick approval of the bill after Rubio declined to attach a child tax credit extension. Passage will likely have to wait until sometime in 2022 at the soonest because of Wyden's action.