Forced Labor

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."

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- CBP is considering offering trusted trader benefits to those in the e-commerce world as a way to improve compliance, said John Leonard, executive director-trade policy and programs at CBP, during a May 2 panel discussion at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's annual conference. The hope is to "incentivize all these new actors in this space to improve the platforms and marketplaces, etc., to be more compliant," he said. "Part of that could involve the Trusted Trader program" and the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program, he said. CBP "is looking at this very closely."

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- Both the government and customs brokers will need to keep agile in light of the fast-moving changes in the world of international trade, said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner-trade at CBP. "The relationship between the government and private sector is very much facilitated by the role of the customs broker," Smith said during a May 2 interview at that National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's annual conference. "I believe those that do international trade are helped by the knowledge and expertise of customs brokers. I think very often there is a financial function that customs brokers can also perform for the private sector. For CBP, I think, they help educate around requirements and we believe that's a very valuable function."

CBP is working on a regulatory update for its prohibition on imports made by forced labor that it hopes will offer some guidance for compliance, said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner-trade at CBP, while speaking at an April 25 American Apparel and Footwear Association event. That should help to alleviate some, but not all, of the concerns over a change in law that requires CBP to treat goods made by North Koreans as made through forced labor, Smith said. "We also have been looking at our regulations to understand where the gaps are and why we are not as effective as we would like to be," she said.

The Department of Homeland Security released a set of frequently asked questions about the prohibition of products made by North Koreans under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). That law "reiterates the need for comprehensive due diligence by and on behalf of U.S. companies involved in importing goods," DHS said. Importers "have the responsibility to exercise reasonable care and provide CBP with such information as is necessary to enable CBP to determine if the merchandise may be released from CBP custody," it said.

Participation in the upcoming Commerce Trusted Trader Program for seafood importers could be more costly than the National Marine Fisheries Service purports, trade groups told the agency in recent comments. Contrary to estimates in a January proposed rule on CTTP, compliance plans that would be required for membership in the program “could be highly complicated to develop, and it would require extensive review, clearance, or internal sign-off before submission to NMFS,” the Pacific Seafood Processors Association said.