CBP posted recordings and some frequently asked questions from each of the sessions during the agency's Virtual Trade Week (see 2009110014), 2009090057, 2009100002 and 2009100049).
CBP posted multiple documents ahead of the Oct. 7 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting:
The Labor Department updated its “list of goods -- along with countries of origin -- that the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) has reason to believe are produced by child labor or forced labor in violation of international standards,” it said in a notice released Oct. 1. The ILAB is required to maintain a list of such goods, which CBP often uses in investigations into the use of forced labor (see 2005200043). The 2020 edition adds six “new goods (gloves, rubber gloves, hair products, pome and stone fruits, sandstone, and tomato products)” and “two new countries (Venezuela and Zimbabwe) and one new area (Taiwan)” to the list, it said. “This edition also features the removal of cattle produced with child labor in Namibia” from the list. Separately, the ILAB also proposed to add bricks from Cambodia to its list of goods that require certification that no forced labor was used prior to federal government procurement of the product.
CBP will detain imports of “palm oil and palm oil products made by FGV Holdings Berhad and its subsidiaries and joint ventures” starting Sept. 30, the agency said in a news release the same day. The Withhold Release Order “is the result of a year-long investigation that revealed forced labor indicators including abuse of vulnerability, deception, restriction of movement, isolation, physical and sexual violence, intimidation and threats, retention of identity documents, withholding of wages, debt bondage, abusive working and living conditions, and excessive overtime,” CBP said. “The investigation also raised concerns that forced child labor is potentially being used in FGV’s palm oil production process,” it said. Palm oil is frequently used in products in grocery and convenience stores, including “processed foods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, soap and biodiesel.”
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said that a bill that overwhelmingly passed the House last week that would change the presumption of guilt for goods coming from China's Xinjiang region may not get a vote in the Senate this year. “They haven't been moving much legislation,” he told International Trade Today during a phone call with reporters Sept. 30. “We'll see when we get to the lame duck, what the status of that is.”
A bill that would change the presumption of guilt for goods coming from China's Xinjiang region passed the House of Representatives on a 406-3 vote Sept. 22. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., an original co-sponsor of the bill, spoke on the floor of the House before the vote. He said “creating a rebuttable assumption” of forced labor in all Xinjiang products is the most important part of the bill.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Sept. 14-18 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The final forms of two bills addressing American commercial involvement with Uighur forced labor will be considered for votes this week, but the rewrites by the Rules Committee soften the impact on businesses, particularly in apparel and shoes. The Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act now also has the disclosure bill incorporated into the language.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet Oct. 7, remotely, beginning at 1 p.m. EDT, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by Oct. 6. The COAC will hear from the following subcommittees on the topics listed below and then will review, deliberate and formulate recommendations on how to proceed on those topics:
The four companies and a “training center” in the Xinjiang region of China that are now subject to withhold release orders (see 2009140017) were involved in imports of more than $200 million worth of goods in fiscal year 2019, a CBP spokesman said Sept. 17. “Although there are some shipments currently in transit, we expect to see further trade with these entities significantly reduced as importers shift supply chains to other sources,” the spokesman said. CBP is considering issuing a broader WRO for the region over forced labor concerns.