Efforts by Uniqlo to prove that no connection exists between a shipment of men's shirts and cotton from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in China were insufficient, CBP said in a May 10 ruling. CBP stopped a shipment at the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach in January, about a month after the agency issued a withhold release order on all cotton products made by XPCC (see 2012020071).
Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., and Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., are co-sponsoring the Illegal Fishing and Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would require importers to provide more information on imported fish and shellfish at least 72 hours before entry, and require that all importers have an International Trade Fisheries Permit. It would expand the reach of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which currently only covers 13 species particularly vulnerable to overfishing or fraud, to include all species within two years. If a SIMP audit found wrongdoing, the permit would be pulled.
CBP seized a shipment of 4.68 million nitrile disposable gloves in Kansas City, Missouri, under the forced labor finding issued by the agency earlier this year (see 2103260028), it said in a news release. The estimated value of the shipment, produced in Malaysia, was $690,000. “Considering this seizure took place in the heartland of America, it goes to show that imports produced by forced labor affect everyone nationwide,” said Steven Ellis, port director-Kansas City. The agency seized a shipment of gloves in Cleveland earlier this year (see 2105040041).
Thea Lee, a former AFL-CIO trade economist and top official for 20 years, will be leading the Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs, which is involved in both enforcement of the USMCA labor chapter and in investigating forced labor and the worst forms of child labor. The AFL-CIO reacted to the news of her appointment by saying “there is no better person to help strengthen enforcement of labor standards that increase the power of workers in the U.S. and around the world. She will also help shape policies to end forced labor and egregious worker rights violations throughout global supply chains.” The job is not one that requires Senate confirmation.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from May 3-7 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Uyghur Human Rights Project Board Chair Nury Turkel told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that his nonprofit wants swift passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would create a rebuttable presumption that goods from China's Xinjiang province were made with forced labor. "The 11 current Withhold-release orders (WROs) are a wholly inadequate response to the gravity of the crimes, the harm to American workers whose wages are undercut by forced-labor competition, and the unwitting complicity of American consumers who buy face masks, hair weaves, cotton apparel, and solar panels produced by the forced labor of Muslim Uyghurs," he said in his prepared testimony.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from April 26-30 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Making sure the recent changes to bankruptcy law that affects custom brokers don't expire at the end of the year (see 2012210045) is the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's top priority, lobbyist Martin Whitmer said during a political update at the NCBFAA conference May 5. The group also is closely watching the 21st Century Customs Framework, renewal of the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, ACE funding, forced labor legislation, the infrastructure package and the highway bill. “Trade and freight movement are one of the top topics in D.C. right now,” he said. “Members of Congress want to learn from you.”
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs began a review of a proposed rule prohibiting goods made using forced labor. OIRA received the proposal from the Treasury Department's customs operations May 4. CBP has been working on regulatory changes for forced labor (see 1703130011) since the law was changed as part of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (see 1603010043).
Seventeen Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, led by New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, are asking the House Appropriations Committee to increase funding of CBP's Office of Trade by $50 million, with instructions that $25 million be dedicated to preventing the import of goods made with forced labor. Their letter, sent May 3, says CBP could use the extra money for origin tracing isotope technology, for its Advanced Trade Analytics Platform, and to hire and train 75 workers.