CBP posted multiple documents ahead of the June 23 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting:
CBP doesn't like the idea of publicly listing the foreign suppliers known to use forced labor as part of withhold release orders that don't target specific entities, said Therese Randazzo, director of the forced labor division in the trade remedy and law enforcement directorate at CBP. Such a list would result in obfuscation by those companies and U.S. importers are required to use reasonable care, said Randazzo, who spoke June 16 during a panel on forced labor hosted by Arent Fox and the New York State Bar Association. Unlike other WROs, regional WROs, such as the one on cotton and tomato products from China’s Xinjiang region (see 2101130053), don't name specific companies subject to the order.
Although the Senate Finance Committee's bipartisan amendment to the China package received 91 votes, some prominent Democrats on trade in the House aren't sure how its provisions could move in their chamber, if Republicans don't agree to calling them up under suspension, which requires a two-thirds vote for passage.
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The Biden administration emphasized how reaching an agreement to end a 17-year-dispute over government subsidies to both Airbus and Boeing does more than just lift tariffs for at least five years. They see the most significant plank of the agreement as the one in which European Union countries agree to prevent foreign investments in the aerospace sector that are done to acquire technology or know-how, and to counter investments by European aerospace companies in China or other countries that are done in response to incentives or because the investments are a condition to sell in that market.
The leaders of Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, the U.S. and Italy agreed to work collectively toward eradicating the use of all forms of forced labor in global supply chains, and said they want concrete suggestions ready before the G-7 trade ministers' meeting in October.
The Treasury Department published its spring 2021 regulatory agenda for CBP. The agenda includes some details about a proposal to change USMCA rules for non-preferential origin determinations for merchandise imported from Canada or Mexico. The proposal was previously disclosed by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, within the Office of Management and Budget (see 2105120051), where it remains under review.
Following criticisms from House Ways and Means Committee Democrats over lack of forced labor enforcement action on imports of polysilicon products from China (see 2106100008), CBP "will provide a full response directly to Chairman Neal and the Committee on Ways and Means," an agency spokesperson said, referring to Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass. "Over the past two years, CBP has taken a record number of enforcement actions against entities in Xinjiang and elsewhere that use forced labor to produce goods linked to U.S. supply chains. CBP will continue to aggressively investigate and prevent goods made wholly or in part by forced labor from entering the United States," the spokesperson said. The lawmakers said CBP suggested to them in February that enforcement action was imminent. CBP didn't respond as to whether such action is still coming.
CBP told lawmakers in February that it planned to take enforcement action over imports of polysilicon products from China related to forced labor, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee said in a June 10 letter they sent to CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller. They chided him for not taking action against polysilicon products made in the Xinjiang province of China. Polysilicon, which is used in solar panels, has been mentioned as a CBP possible target in recent months (see 2104260059).
The China package once known as the Endless Frontier Act passed the Senate with 68 votes. The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act includes a trade amendment that authorizes a new Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, restarts applications for Section 301 tariff exclusions, adds an inspector general to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, renews the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program for more than five years and directs the CBP to increase inspections of imports with the aim of finding counterfeits. The bill passed the evening of June 8.