Companies should review existing and prospective agreements for potential liability under China's anti-foreign sanctions law, Evan Chuck of Crowell & Moring advised during a Practising Law Institute webinar on Sept. 26.
The EU has received assurances that Beijing will grant export licenses for shipments of gallium and germanium to European businesses despite the restrictions China placed on exports of the two metals in August (see 2307050018), European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said this week. Dombrovskis also said the bloc is looking to sanction additional Chinese firms that may be skirting restrictions against Russia and is hoping to ensure its upcoming supply chain due diligence regulations don’t impose excessive compliance burdens on EU companies.
Ten members of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, led by Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., are questioning the proportion of electronics shipments that have been released under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), after importers provided CBP with clear and convincing evidence that their supply chains had no Xinjiang links.
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The Bureau of International Labor Affairs, or ILAB, is asking for comments on its recent report on the worst forms of child labor; its list of goods produced by child labor or forced labor; and on Comply Chain, advice for importers on labor compliance. Comments are open until Dec. 15. Comments may lead to the department updating the list, and will be used in preparing next year's report. For the Comply Chain comments, ILAB is asking for "information on current practices of firms, business associations, and other private sector groups to reduce the likelihood of child labor and forced labor in the production of goods."
China's Ministry of Commerce said the recent U.S. decision to add three Chinese entities to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List (see 2309260035) "has no factual basis and lacks transparency," according to an unofficial translation. Dubbing the move a "typical act of economic bullying," the ministry said the additions suppress Chinese firms and seriously distort the facts surrounding the situation in the Xinjiang region. It said there is no forced labor in Xinjiang, saying the additions were made solely in the name of undermining Xinjiang's prosperity and stability. "China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises," the ministry said.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., introduced a bill that would hike the tariff on imported shrimp from India from zero percent to 10% in 2024, 20% in 2025, and 40% in 2026, a move he said is justified by the subsidies received by Indian shrimp farmers. About 40% of U.S. imports of shrimp are from India, the Sept. 28 news release said.
Moving manufacturing from China to another Asian country is not the way to "get ahead of the game" in avoiding forced labor detentions, said Amanda Levitt, a Sandler Travis lawyer, while speaking during a virtual Sourcemap conference on supply chain transparency. Levitt said that tracing falls apart for most firms at the Tier 2 level, and that's not enough. Many of the items identified by nongovernmental organizations as being produced with Uyghur forced labor -- cotton, aluminum, PVC -- are raw materials much deeper than tier 2.
In a report that the State Department says highlights "the ongoing, widespread, and pervasive [state-sponsored forced labor] risks" in Xinjiang supply chains, the administration mostly reviewed developments in the last year -- such as CBP guidance on how to write summaries for applicability reviews, or non-governmental organizations' papers identifying sectors with links to Xinjiang.
CBP in August identified 320 shipments valued at more than $68 million for further examination based on the suspected use of forced labor, including goods subject to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and withhold release orders, the agency said in its most recent operational statistics update. (CBP told us the update erroneously says the 320 shipments were the July count.) That's down from July, when CBP identified a total of 388 shipments valued at more than $107 million (see 2308210019). Also in August, CBP seized 1,710 shipments that contained counterfeit goods valued at more than $177 million, the agency said.