CBP posted updated Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism Minimum Security Criteria to the CTPAT portal and is seeking comments from CTPAT members, CBP said in a document posted ahead of the Aug. 1 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting. "In late July, CTPAT Members received an email from the program outlining the key elements of the socialization strategy -- including the development of Workbooks for each of the entities eligible for CTPAT membership which have been uploaded to the CTPAT Portal; the delivery of live webinars; and an agenda outlining a series of workshops that are being delivered throughout the United States by CTPAT field personnel," CBP said.
The departments of State, Treasury and Homeland Security jointly issued an advisory about the ban on goods made by North Korean nationals, the Office of Foreign Assets Control announced on July 23. The guidance is meant to "highlight the sanctions evasion tactics used by North Korea that could expose businesses -- including manufacturers, buyers, and service providers -- to sanctions compliance risks," it said. "Businesses should be aware of deceptive practices employed by North Korea in order to implement effective due diligence policies, procedures, and internal controls to ensure compliance with applicable legal requirements across their entire supply chains." The advisory also provides information on the industries and countries known to have used North Korean labor. The use of North Korean labor is considered to be forced labor under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (see 1711070046). DHS released some frequently asked questions in late March on CAATSA enforcement (see 1804020018).
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet Aug. 1 by webinar, CBP said in a notice.
The Department of Homeland Security updated its Northern Border Strategy (NBS) for the first time since it was issued in 2012 (see 12060723), DHS said in a news release. DHS said the "strategy establishes a clear vision and concrete actions that will improve DHS’s efforts to safeguard our northern border against terrorist and criminal threats, facilitate the safe and efficient flow of lawful cross-border trade and travel, and strengthen cross-border critical infrastructure protection and community resilience."
BALTIMORE -- CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told an audience of import and export professionals that CBP is going to use the White House directive on regulatory reform to edit regulations across many areas, including bonded warehouses, foreign-trade zones, vessel arrival, e-bonds and ending the requirement that customs brokers have local certification. McAleenan, who was speaking at the American Association of Exporters and Importers annual conference June 8, also touched on agency initiatives in improving screening of small packages, protecting trademarks and copyrights, and blocking shipments of goods produced with forced labor. He encouraged everyone to make e-allegations on forced labor, and said he just received one from junior high school students in Maine who are concerned about slave labor in the chocolate industry.
The Cotton Campaign, which petitioned CBP to stop imports of goods using cotton from Turkmenistan, celebrated CBP's recently issued Withhold Release Order (see 1805210028). “CBP’s decision is an important step towards ending one the most egregious cases of state-orchestrated forced labor left in the world,” said Eric Gottwald, Legal & Policy director of the International Labor Rights Forum, in a statement in a Cotton Campaign news release. “Now CBP must put the ban into practice by identifying and stopping specific shipments of goods made with Turkmen cotton.”
The recent scrutiny of social media platforms like Facebook should be seen as a cautionary model for the regulators watching the rapid growth of e-commerce, CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said during a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce during a May 22 event. "I think the recent developments in social media and the oversight of social media provide some context I think we should reflect on," he said. For e-commerce, as with Facebook, "the relevant regulators have to be cognizant of the potential risks that such expansion brings," he said.
CBP recently issued a new withhold release order due to suspicions of goods made by forced labor, according to CBP's list of such orders. The WRO is dated May 18 and applies to "all Turkmenistan Cotton or products produced in whole or in part with Turkmenistan cotton." Labor and human rights groups filed a petition in 2016 calling for a ban on all cotton from the country because Turkmenistan operates a government monopoly that forces citizens to grow and harvest cotton under threat of penalty (see 1604120031). That petition named Ikea as one company that has imported products made with cotton from Turkmenistan. The Cotton Campaign, which submitted the petition, and Ikea didn't immediately comment.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 7-11 in case they were missed.
The Treasury Department published its spring 2018 regulatory agenda for CBP. The agenda includes two new rulemakings, one involving the prohibition on imports made through forced labor and another on intellectual property rights. The forced labor proposal, expected by August, would "would generally bring the forced labor regulations and detention procedures into alignment with other statutes, regulations and procedures that apply to the enforcement of restrictions against other types of prohibited merchandise," it said. The IPR rulemaking, expected by August, would "create a procedure for the disclosure of information otherwise protected by the Trade Secrets Act to a trademark owner when merchandise bearing suspected counterfeit trademarks has been voluntarily abandoned."