A Roth Capital analyst said that JinkoSolar modules detained on suspicion of forced labor "may have just been released" by CBP, and the analyst believes "this could result in a ramp up of volume and imports.” JinkoSolar “likely has a substantial amount of Hoshine WRO & UFLPA backlog to get through,” the analyst said.
At the first U.S.-EU Trade and Labor Dialogue, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Deputy Undersecretary of Labor for International Affairs Thea Lee and European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis talked about leveraging trade tools between the United States and the European Union to eliminate forced labor in the global economy," according to a USTR readout of the Dec. 5 meeting.
A readout of a Dec. 1 meeting between U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Mexican Economy Secretary Raquel Buenrostro, a new appointee, said Tai "reiterated the importance" of Mexico imposing a ban on the import of goods made with forced labor. Tai also said it's urgent consultations over what the U.S. sees as discriminatory investment policies in Mexico's energy sector make "meaningful progress."
CBP’s recently announced global business identifier pilot program (see 2212010046) is a “big first step” toward “greater clarity and greater accountability for the accuracy of data,” and its results could prove a boon to enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act for both CBP and importers, trade lawyer John Foote said Dec. 2 on his blog Forced Labor & Trade. UFLPA enforcement is dependent on sub-tier manufacturers and raw material producers, and the GBI pilot promises delve deeper in the supply chain than the problematic manufacturer ID currently used on entry documentation by obtaining the unique identities of the manufacturer, shipper and seller, as well as optionally the exporter, distributor and packager, Foote said. “[T]he GBI pilot is certainly a big first step in the direction of greater clarity and greater accountability for the accuracy of data. It will be interesting to see whether it is a success,” he said.
CBP will in 2023 begin testing two projects under the DHS Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP) “that will connect CBP with trade users,” the agency said in a document released ahead of an upcoming meeting of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee. The projects are being used to “verify some ACE 2.0 concepts” to inform CBP’s development of ACE 2.0, “which could begin as early as 2025,” CBP said.
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The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) will not move forward with a proposal under the 21st Century Customs Framework (21CCF) to make ocean vessel manifest data automatically confidential, according to a report from the 21CCF task force released by the COAC Nov. 28. The provision is one of several listed by the task force in the report that the COAC will no longer advance after recent discussions with CBP.
Companies based in China’s Xinjiang province recently signed deals with companies located elsewhere in China to export Xinjiang-origin food products that are made with forced labor, said Kharon, a risk data and risk management software company, in an alert Nov. 21. Chinese news reports coming out of an expo held in Xinjiang’s capital in September indicate Xinjiang Tianyun Organic Agriculture Co., Ltd., a fish farming and processing business that has participated in so-called “poverty alleviation programs,” an indicator of forced labor, signed an agreement with Dalian Rich Enterprise Group “intended to substantially increase international distribution of Xinjiang salmon,” Kharon said.
CBP will block imports from Dominican sugar giant Central Romana under a new withhold release order issued by the agency on Nov. 23, it said in a news release the same day. Beginning on Nov. 23, CBP will “detain raw sugar and sugar-based products produced in the Dominican Republic” by Central Romana, after finding “information that reasonably indicates the use of forced labor in its operation,” CBP said.
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation says the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports have been fruitless, and antidumping and countervailing duty laws also are inadequate to counter the wide variety of abuses from China -- industrial espionage, forced technology transfer, discrimination against foreign sales in China, as well as enormous subsidies. "It is time for the U.S. government, ideally working with allies, to craft and implement a new set of trade defense instruments," ITIF Founder Robert Atkinson wrote in a white paper released Nov. 21.