The Department of Labor's Bureau of International Affairs said in a notice it's removing two goods from its List of Products Requiring Federal Contractor Certification as to Forced or Indentured Child Labor: shrimp from Thailand and garments from Vietnam. Federal contractors who supply products on Labor's list must certify that the product wasn't made using child labor.
Forced Labor
CBP is the primary U.S. agency tasked with combating forced labor in international trade. It is the only agency with legal authority to take enforcement action and prevent entry into domestic commerce of goods produced with forced labor. CBP combats forced labor by issuing Withhold Release Orders (WROs) and Findings, and enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), and Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). Goods subject to WROs and Findings, UFLPA, and CAATSA status cannot be entered at any ports of the U.S.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet Sept. 18 remotely and in person in Washington, D.C., starting at 1 p.m. EDT, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due by Sept. 13.
CBP's Air Cargo Advanced Screening security filings will have additional codes to be completed by filers responsible for air cargo shipments originating from outside the U.S., starting in early September.
Nearly $43 million worth of electronics equipment bound for the U.S. from India has been detained under Uyghur Force Labor Prevention Act since last October, according to CBP data, Reuters said in an Aug. 27 report. CBP's data doesn't parse out the types of goods within each category that were detained, but solar panels may have constituted the majority of the detained electronics equipment, the report quoted sources as saying.
Sayari analysts, who say their company crunches 600 million shipment records, say that the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act has had more impact than British, German, Swiss, Canadian and French laws aimed at removing human rights abuses from supply chains.
Shein audits in 2023 uncovered two contract manufacturers that were hiring children 15 years old or younger in China, the company reported, and the companies let those workers go, paid their outstanding wages, and facilitated a return to their parents or legal guardians. "SHEIN also ensured the contract manufacturers strengthened their processes for screening new hires, such as checking and maintaining records of all employees’ IDs. Following appropriate remediation, the contract manufacturers were permitted to resume business," the report said.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) has ordered the two major Canadian freight railways and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) to undergo binding arbitration over a new labor agreement that would replace the old one that expired in December 2023. A meeting of parties is to take place later this week.
The U.S. told the Court of International Trade on Aug. 23 that exporter Hoshine Silicon (Jia Xing) Industry Co. doesn't have statutory or constitutional standing to challenge CBP's denial of the company's request to remove it from a withhold release order (WRO) on silica-based products made by its parent company Hoshine Silicon and its subsidiaries (Hoshine Silicon (Jia Xing) Industry Co. v. United States, CIT # 24-00048).
A plaintiff representing a consumer advocacy group Aug. 16 filed a complaint against the company that sells products under the brand names Oreo, Toblerone and Cadbury chocolate for its use of child labor and poor environmental standards (Tim Gollogly v. Mondelez International, N.D. Ill. # 24-07368).