CBP should “exercise discretion” when using its withhold release order (WRO) authority to address forced labor violations, leaving space for importers to use their leverage to get suppliers to change their illegal practices, the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) Intelligent Enforcement subcommittee said in draft recommendations released ahead of the July 15 COAC meeting.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, asked White House trade adviser Peter Navarro to answer a series of questions related to former National Security Adviser John Bolton's assertion that President Donald Trump pleaded with China's president to buy more soybeans and wheat, so Trump could win re-election. He asked him to confirm the claim, and to say whether he was in all the meetings between Trump and the Chinese president that Bolton described. He asked for the answers by July 14.
The Trump administration issued an advisory for companies doing business with China’s Xinjiang region, which could expose companies to sanctions, export controls and forced labor risks. In a 19-page guidance issued July 1, the departments of State, Commerce, the Treasury and Homeland Security describe supply chain risks and possible sanctions exposure for companies trading with the region, and includes suggested due diligence practices. The guidance comes less than a month after President Donald Trump authorized sanctions against Chinese officials for human rights violations against the country’s Uighur population in the Xinjiang region (see 2006170064).
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet July 15, remotely, beginning at 1 p.m., CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by July 14.
CBP could improve its communications about what information is useful for investigating forced labor used in the seafood industry, the Government Accountability Office said in a June 18 report. Fourteen nongovernmental organizations interviewed by the GAO “indicated that they had some uncertainty about the types and level of information CBP needs to investigate forced labor cases in the seafood industry,” it said. “For example, representatives from one NGO said it was not clear what constituted a credible allegation for CBP, or what information CBP needs to make a section 307 determination.” Another NGO said “it is not worth dedicating the time and resources to develop an allegation without a clear sense of the types of information CBP is looking for to investigate its forced labor cases,” the GAO said.
CBP issued a withhold release order for imported hair products “made wholly or in part with hair products produced by Lop County Meixin Hair Product Co. Ltd. (Meixin) in Xinjiang, China,” CBP said in a news release. The WRO was issued due to suspicions of forced labor use and is effective as of June 17, CBP said. The agency issued a similar WRO in May on hair products made by another company in the region (see 2005010040).
CBP updated its withhold release order on tobacco from Malawi so “that tobacco imported from Malawi by Alliance One International, LLC will be admissible at all U.S. ports of entry effective June 3,” the agency said in an emailed news release. CBP issued the original WRO in 2019 (see 1911010026). CBP “modified the WRO based on a rigorous evaluation of Alliance One International’s social compliance program and efforts to identify and minimize the risks of forced labor from its supply chain,” it said. “These actions produced evidence that sufficiently supports Alliance One International’s claim that the tobacco produced and harvested from their farms does not use forced labor. The WRO continues to apply to imports of tobacco from Malawi by any company that has not demonstrated to CBP that there is no forced labor in its supply chain.”
CBP updated its withhold release order on gold mined in artisanal small mines so that “gold imported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by the Chambers Federation will be admissible at all U.S. ports of entry effective May 28,” the agency said in a news release. CBP issued the original WRO in 2019 (see 1910010017). CBP “modified the WRO based on a rigorous evaluation of the Chambers Federation’s due diligence program and work with various government and non-governmental organizations,” it said. “These actions produced evidence that sufficiently supports the Chambers Federation’s claim that the artisanal and small-scale mines in the DRC from which the Chambers Federation imports gold do not use forced labor.”
The number of withhold release orders for goods that are allegedly made with forced labor has climbed sharply in the last five years, and Columbia Sportswear's director of global customs and trade said importers should expect that trend to accelerate. Katie Tangman, who was speaking May 20 during the online convention of the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones, said traders should expect other countries to pass import bans on goods made from forced labor. While the U.S. is the only country with such a law at this point, Mexico and Canada will be passing bans as part of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, she said, and pressure is building in the European Union to act, too.