The House is not clamoring to take up the Senate-passed Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, as Democrats weigh the fact that aligning with the Senate may mean a bill becomes law sooner, with their view that the House approach is stronger.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from July 19-23 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Although there were some specific complaints about how USMCA has gone in its first year -- especially what witnesses and senators said was an anemic effort to get Mexico to change its stance on genetically modified agricultural crops -- much of the hearing in the Senate Finance Committee on July 27 explored how USMCA should be seen as a model for future trade agreements.
CBP updated a withhold release order on imports of carpets and hand-knotted products from Nepal to remove Annapurna Carpet Industries Pvt. Ltd., the agency said in a July 26 news release. “CBP’s thorough review of Annapurna Carpet’s business practices indicates that the company has remediated concerns about the use of forced labor in its production process and that its products may be imported into the United States,” AnnMarie Highsmith, CBP executive assistant commissioner for trade, said. The WRO was issued in 1998 and still applies to Kumar Carpet Pvt., Singhe Carpet Pvt., Ltd., Norsang Carpet Industries Pvt., Ltd., Everest Carpet, Valley Carpet, and K.K. Carpet Industries.
Most of the witnesses at a hearing on the challenge of enhancing enforcement against forced labor put the problem at the feet of corporations that, they say, knowingly pay so little for cocoa, fish, garments or sugar that exploitation is guaranteed to follow.
As CBP moves toward implementation of a forced labor component in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism Trade Compliance program, still hoped for by the end of September (see 2106250045), the agency is working to flesh out what will be required from participants and what benefits will be provided to them. As it stands now, CBP looks set to add a section on social compliance programs related to forced labor to the annual notification letters that are already required of the 300 some current CTPAT Trade Compliance participants, said Carmen Perez, branch chief of the Trade Compliance program at CBP.
CBP is in the process of setting up a second investigations branch in its forced labor division, putting to use additional forced labor funding budgeted by Congress for 2021, said Therese Randazzo, director of the agency’s forced labor division, during CBP’s Virtual Trade Week on July 21.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from July 12-16 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Importers of goods that were made in Xinjiang, or contain inputs that were mined or grown in Xinjiang, would have to prove to CBP's satisfaction that the goods were not made with forced labor, starting 300 days after the signing of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act if the Senate version is the one that becomes law. The Senate bill, which passed unanimously the evening of July 14, directs the Department of Homeland Security, after consulting with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the departments of Labor and State, to solicit public comments “on how best to ensure that goods made with forced labor in the People’s Republic of China, including by Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other persecuted groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, are not imported into the United States.” That public notice would have to follow within 45 days of enactment. The public would have at least 60 days to comment, and a public hearing would follow within 45 days of the end of that period.
One of the obligations Canada and Mexico agreed to in the NAFTA rewrite is a ban on goods made with forced labor, but Baker McKenzie lawyers said it's not clear how much things are changing in that regard. Paul Burns, a Baker McKenzie partner in Toronto, said that while Canada has changed its law to ban the importation of goods made with forced labor, the Canadian customs agency does not disclose information about its enforcement. "We don’t know if there have been any detentions made," he said. "I expect there hasn't been."