CBP issued a withhold release order on “palm oil and products containing palm oil produced by Sime Darby Plantation Berhad and its subsidiaries, joint ventures, and affiliated entities in Malaysia,” the agency said in a news release Dec. 30. The WRO follows a monthslong investigation into SDP, Malaysia's largest producer of palm oil, Ana Hinojosa, executive director of CBP’s Trade Remedy and Law Enforcement Division, said during a Dec. 30 call with reporters. “It's pretty clear, we're expecting the trade community to know your supply chain,” she said.
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International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Dec. 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.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a co-sponsor of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, told International Trade Today that he doesn't expect the Senate to vote on the bill as part of the year-end legislative package.
CBP should work with the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee to “clarify the types of audits or reviews to which trusted trader partners may be subject regarding compliance, including forced labor,” the COAC Trusted Trader Working Group said in a recommendation that was approved during the Dec. 16 COAC meeting. Working group co-chair Alexandra Latham said CBP last month began Risk Analysis & Survey Assessments (RASAs) around forced labor (see 2012020046).
CBP looks set to issue a proposed overhaul of its regulations on forced labor in the near term, Ana Hinojosa, executive director of CBP’s Trade Remedy and Law Enforcement Division, said during the Dec. 16 meeting of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee. Hinojosa said she is “keeping my fingers crossed” that “hopefully in the next 30 days we might see it published.”
The Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, led by its chairman and trade subcommittee chairman, told CBP that its answers on its enforcement strategy on forced labor “have been insufficient” so far, and they want specifics on what the agency is doing to stop the import of palm oil made with forced labor.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Dec. 7-11 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Treasury Department published its fall 2020 regulatory agenda for CBP. The agenda now mentions a proposal to end the de minimis exemption for goods subject to Section 301 tariffs. The proposal was previously disclosed by the Office of Management and Budget (see 2009040026), where it remains under review. Brenda Smith, CBP executive assistant international trade commissioner, recently cited some operational concerns with the idea (see 2011100034).
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., says that the new administration should prioritize a free trade deal with the European Union following the template of USMCA, saying President Donald Trump's abandonment of serious trade talks with Europe was a “particularly detrimental blunder.”
The statute that authorizes CBP enforcement of a prohibition on imports made through forced labor may not be enough to stem mistreatment of Chinese Muslims in the Xinjiang region, the Congressional Research Service said in a Dec. 7 report. “Many experts agree that Section 307 is an important tool, but perhaps not sufficient to bring about policy changes in China given the scale and severity of the human rights crisis, which goes beyond forced labor to include mass arbitrary detention, mass surveillance, and other abuses,” it said. A recent withhold release order on Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps cotton was a major enforcement action by CBP and the government is considering additional steps (see 2012030021).