CBP's forced labor efforts are "really showing results," John Leonard, deputy executive assistant commissioner of CBP's Office of Trade, said July 19 at the Trade Facilitation and Cargo Security Summit. "Many of our [withhold release orders], especially the ones in Malaysia, are in the process of being modified, which means workers are being treated better," he said. "They're actually getting better pay, better living conditions." CBP will modify a WRO for a specific entity if it can show to CBP that all indicators of forced labor have been remediated.
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The Entity List released last month for the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) will be getting longer fairly soon, according to John Pickel, principal director, trade and economic competitiveness, Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans at DHS. Pickel, speaking at a CBP trade conference in California July 18, sad, "The process for adding and removing entities will be summarized in a Federal Register notice that we expect to come out in the short term."
Just as the U.S. trade representative declined to continue work toward a traditional free trade agreement with the U.K. begun during the previous administration, current USTR Katherine Tai announced July 14 that trade talks with Kenya will deal with trade facilitation, digital trade, science-based sanitary and phytosanitary rules and rooting out forced labor in supply chains -- not reducing tariffs on either side.
CBP’s reversal in an antidumping and countervailing duty evasion case at the Court of International Trade case puts the agency’s entire Enforce and Protect Act program “in jeopardy,” the domestic industry group Aluminum Extruders Council said in a blog post July 13.
A Husch Blackwell partner said that although most importers have not been surprised when CBP tells them they are intending to do an intensive exam on their goods when they arrive in port over forced labor issues, his firm has had several clients whose goods were cleared, and then, in the first month after that date, CBP issues a redelivery notice.
Seven House Democrats have asked the Biden administration why three Chinese solar panel manufacturers were not put on the entity list under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, as they say consulting group Horizon Advisory has reported that the three either have ties to forced labor or have signs of using forced labor.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing to amend its regulations to implement recently passed laws against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The proposed rule would revise the regulatory definition of IUU fishing, revise regulatory penalty provisions, amend procedures for identifying and certifying nations that have vessels engaged in IUU fishing, reduce the period of validity for certain vessel permits and expand the information required to be submitted by foreign fishing vessels requesting entry into U.S. ports.
Canada, which had exported more than $133 million worth of solar panels in 2017 before its exports were hit with the global safeguard, will no longer be subject to the 14.75% tariff on panels. The change was announced July 7, while U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai was visiting Canada for the USMCA Free Trade Commission; the memorandum of understanding marking the change will be signed July 8. Tai said the agreement "contains a mechanism to ensure that solar product imports from Canada do not undermine the existing U.S. safeguard measure on imports of solar products," and also commits Canada to prohibiting the import of solar module components made in whole or in part with forced or compulsory labor.