The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet April 15, remotely, beginning at 1 p.m., CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by April 14.
CBP's withdrawal of the Withhold Release Order on disposable rubber gloves made by a company in Malaysia (see 2003240066) followed an intensive information-sharing effort between the manufacturer and CBP, the agency said in a news release. The agency said it revoked the WRO “based on recent information obtained by CBP showing the company is no longer producing the rubber gloves under forced labor conditions.” CBP issues WROs to prevent imports of goods suspected of involving forced labor in the manufacturing process. The 2019 WRO applied to Disposable Rubber Gloves manufactured in Malaysia by WRP Asia Pacific Sdn. Bhd.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., along with the Trade Subcommittee and Intelligence Committee chairmen, and others, plan to ask the director of national intelligence to publicly release what information it has on forced labor, whether in camps or in factories where Uighurs are threatened they will be returned to detention if they do not work -- “especially information related to the textile and cotton industries, and the names of organizations and institutions benefiting from forced labor,” she wrote.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for March 9-13 in case they were missed.
A bill introduced by House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, D-Mass., in the House and by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in the Senate would create a rebuttable presumption about forced labor in Xinjiang, China, which would mean any companies that import goods made in that region “must demonstrate through 'clear and convincing' evidence that there was no forced labor in their supply chains,” according to a release announcing the bill's introduction.
A Congressional-Executive Commission on China released a report on March 11 that spelled out a number of concerns around the use of forced labor in China. “The risk for complicity in forced labor is high for any company importing goods directly from [Xinjiang] or those partnering with a Chinese company operating in the region,” it said. The report recommended that the administration consider “issuing a comprehensive import ban on all goods produced, wholly or in part, in [Xinjiang] until a determination can be made by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that [the province's] authorities and producers have ended the systematic use of forced labor“ of Muslim ethnic minorities. The CECC had a hearing on the issue last year (see 1910170039). The National Council of Textile Organizations said March 11 that it agrees with the CECC recommendations.
The U.S. Trade Representative's annual report on China's compliance with World Trade Organization commitments details many of the same problems noted in previous years' reports, but they wrote that this year “we focus on the positive outcomes to date of the Administration’s new and more effective strategy for engaging China, which has led to the signing of an historic trade agreement with China,” while also talking about “the important issues that remain to be addressed in our trade relationship with China.”
CBP and the trade community again face difficult decisions on how to move forward with mandatory continuing education for customs brokers. The toughest may be how to create a fair accreditation scheme, but that’s just one of many open questions as a joint task force again attempts to find some resolution of issues that caused continuing education to fall off CBP’s agenda nearly a half-decade ago.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Jan. 27-31 in case they were missed.
CBP remains cautious in moving toward continuing education requirements for customs brokers as it continues to examine the issues that derailed a similar effort some years ago, said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner of CBP’s Office of Trade, during a Jan. 29 interview with International Trade Today. CBP recently launched a task force on the subject (see 1910160056), but the agency is considering whether an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) is necessary before issuing an actual proposal, she said.