The public comment period for input on how to implement the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act will begin Jan. 24, DHS said in a notice. Within the notice, DHS offers 18 questions that commenters may want to address as part of the process. Comments on the implementation will be due March 10. Effective June 21, the law will impose a new rebuttable presumption that goods linked to Xinjiang province are made with forced labor and are prohibited from being imported (see 2112280048).
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Earl Blumenauer said Congress would never have raised the minimis level to $800 if it had known how many products would be sold through e-commerce channels from China and shipped directly to customers. "It was never intended to be anything like this, and not only are they evading payment of duty, but they are escaping any sort of meaningful oversight," he said in a phone interview from Oregon with International Trade Today. "And as you know, we're deeply concerned about forced labor."
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The House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee chairman's bill that would restrict the use of de minimis for Chinese sellers has already inspired a coalition of opponents, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Express Association of America, National Retail Federation and others. The Import Security and Fairness Act was introduced Jan. 18.
After the first USMCA deputies meeting, Mexico, Canada and the U.S. issued a joint statement saying that they are scrutinizing the implementation of the prohibition on importing goods made with forced labor. They also discussed environmental law enforcement cooperation, and training planned this year for small businesses so they can access the treaty's benefits. All said "though there have been challenges, progress continues to be made under the Agreement."
Many companies may not have insight into where their raw materials come from, said Wiley lawyers while speaking on a webinar about preparing for the enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. But doing the best they can to eradicate any links to the Xinjiang province in China is needed to lower the risk that goods could be detained under suspicion of forced labor, given that imports with links to Xinjiang will be assumed to be made with forced labor, starting in June.
U.S. allegations of forced labor in Xinjiang are the “lie of the century,” perpetuated by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), a group that is “biased” against Beijing and has “no political credibility at all,” a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson said Jan. 13, according to an English translation of a transcript of a regular press conference. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Reps. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Chris Smith, R-N.J., all members of the CECC, wrote International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach Jan. 12 seeking “assurances” that the cotton that Chinese sportswear companies Anta Sports and Hengyuanxiang Group source from Xinjiang was produced free of human rights violations. Since cotton made in Xinjiang is “synonymous with forced labor and the systematic repression that takes place there,” there exists the “worrisome possibility that IOC personnel or others attending the 2022 Olympic Games will be wearing clothing contaminated by forced labor,” they said. The IOC didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., joined by 14 Democrats on the committee, is asking that the Biden administration develop an action plan to improve the working conditions of Haitian migrant workers in the sugar industry in the Dominican Republic, including potentially banning the import of that sugar under the ban on goods made with forced labor.
The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee and that committee's chairman, as well as the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, urged the deputy U.S. trade representative to press Mexico and Canada on market access issues for the energy and agricultural sectors, and the senators also complained about barriers for the telecom, pharmaceutical and television industries in either Mexico or Canada. Deputy USTR Jayme White is meeting with Canadian and Mexican counterparts this week.
In its annual State of American Business, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce chose to emphasize the need to double the level of legal immigration, its opposition to Build Back Better legislation and what it sees as overly aggressive antitrust enforcement over the need to remove tariffs on hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Chinese imports. Three years ago, the Chamber was arguing that the tariffs needed to go (see 1901100007), but last year, admitted it was not politically feasible as it laid out its trade agenda (see 2101130057).