"Activity" is "on the horizon" related to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, Lesleyanne Kessler, CBP’s deputy associate chief counsel, said at an event on June 13. Following the recent addition of new companies to the list for the first time since the list was released in June 2022 (see 2306090011), Kessler said she expects the process for an interagency task force to add companies or remove them from the list "will be moving ahead in the coming year."
The top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee has reintroduced a bill eliminating Chinese shippers' eligibility for de minimis, keeping the ban on China, and adding a requirement that remaining de minimis shipments include at a minimum: a description; an HTS code; a country of origin, shipper, importer; and a U.S. value. The new version also dropped language around sections 232 and 301 tariffs in the previous version.
A recently introduced bill would end Chinese and Russian shippers' eligibility for de minimis, and would order the Treasury Department to determine, within 180 days, what rates the other countries deserve for de minimis, based on both their own de minimis treatment of U.S. shipments and their threshold to collect a value-added tax, if they have one.
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A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce said the U.S. should immediately halt its political manipulation and smear attacks in response to the recent U.S. listing of two Chinese companies and their subsidiaries under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, according to an unofficial translation. The U.S. added Ninestar and Xinjiang Zhongtai Chemical for working with the Xinjiang government to "recruit, transport, transfer, harbor or receive forced labor or Uyghurs” and other persecuted groups (see 2306090011). The Commerce Ministry spokesperson said that there is no forced labor in Xinjiang and that China will take the necessary steps to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.
Countries in the Five Eyes Alliance, plus Japan, have issued a joint declaration on non-market practices and trade related economic coercion that they say "undermine the functioning of and confidence in the rules-based multilateral trading system by distorting trade, investment, and competition and harming relations between countries."
CBP posted the following documents ahead of the June 14 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting:
DHS will add two companies, as well as eight subsidiaries of one of those companies, to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, according to a pre-publication notice released June 9.
DHS will add two companies, as well as eight subsidiaries of one of those companies, to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, according to a pre-publication notice released June 9.
Once CBP submits its proposal for a new customs modernization law, National Foreign Trade Council Senior Director of International Supply Chain Policy John Pickel says, Congress will dig into how they want to shape the bill. It’s not an easy task to produce a bill with a balance between enforcement and trade facilitation, but that’s Congress’ intention, he said.