CBP posted multiple documents ahead of the Dec. 16 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting:
Two CBP questionnaires focused on forced labor that reportedly were issued recently to importers (see 2012020046) are part of the agency's targeting work, an agency spokesperson said in a Dec. 3 email. CBP “assesses risks and communicates routinely with importers about their responsibility to exercise due diligence and reasonable care to ensure that the goods they import into the United States are compliant with federal laws and regulations, including those pertaining to forced labor,” he said. “As part of that outreach, CBP may solicit supply chain information to identify risks, target violative shipments, and ensure effective enforcement of U.S. trade laws and regulations.”
The head of the House Ways and Means Committee, along with the chairman and a senior member of the Trade Subcommittee, said Dec. 3 that they “have deep concerns about CBP’s ability” to effectively enforce a withhold release order on cotton produced by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (see 2012030021). As evidence, they cited a recent Government Accountability Office report on CBP enforcement of imports of goods made with forced labor that was not publicly released.
The “idea of a regional” withhold release order is “certainly not out of play,” Department of Homeland Security acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said during a Dec. 2 conference call to announce a WRO on Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps cotton (see 2012020071). Such an action remains “legally doable,” though it takes a different “quantum of evidence to accomplish,” he said. CBP previously considered XPCC and regional WROs, but declined to go ahead with those in September (see 2009140040).
CBP recently sent a pair of questionnaires to importers regarding the use of forced labor in supply chains, the U.S. Fashion Industry Association said in a Dec. 1 blog post. “To our knowledge, the questionnaires, which relate to cotton, have not yet been distributed widely,” it said. Much of the information inquired about may not be available to importers so the questionnaires may be an effort from CBP “to get an idea of what they might expect from importers as a practical matter,” it said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a press release Dec. 1 asking people to call their members of Congress to argue against watering down the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (see 2011300034). The group was responding to a report in The New York Times that business interests, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Nike and Apple, are asking Congress to weaken the bill, which would prohibit imports of many products made by Uighur Muslims in China's Xinjiang province in an effort to halt the use of forced labor and other human rights abuses.
The Coalition for a Prosperous America published advice to the transitioning Joe Biden administration, which includes a call to continue and intensify the kind of tariff and sanctions policies used by the Trump administration, and to go further, such as by raising the bound tariffs at the World Trade Organization. The CPA also asked for countrywide withhold release orders for forced labor, a reduction of the $800 de minimis level and a change in the makeup of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee. “The membership of COAC should equal representation by domestic businesses and labor harmed by unlawful imports, rather than being dominated by multinationals and importer interests,” they said.
Lobbying disclosure reports show a lot of corporate interest in the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The National Retail Federation, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, the American Apparel and Footwear Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Plumbing Manufacturers International, and many companies, including Nike, Apple, Engie North America, Kraft Heinz, Campbell Soup and VF have been lobbying on the bill, which passed the House almost unanimously and is awaiting a Senate vote. The law would create a presumption that any goods from China's Xinjiang province were made with forced labor. The AFL-CIO and the American Foundry Society also have been lobbying on the bill.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet remotely on Dec. 16, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by Dec. 15.
Kelley Drye hired John Foote, previously with Baker McKenzie, as a partner in the International Trade practice group, the law firm said in a Nov. 19 news release. Foote's “practice includes customs and international trade policy, compliance and enforcement, with a particular focus on developing internal compliance programs targeting forced labor in supply chains,” Kelley Drye said.