The U.S. government, aware that many goods made with forced labor are inputs to finished goods, is working both to identify those inputs and to help importers understand that their goods could be banned from import as traceability becomes more possible.
At a field hearing in Michigan, House Select Committee on China Chairman Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and committee member Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., emphasized electric vehicle battery maker Gotion's ties to suppliers that use Uyghur forced labor, and questioned why Gotion should be allowed to open factories in their states. Gotion declined to send a representative to testify, they said.
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.
London-headquartered Business & Human Rights Resource Centre says only four of 10 global perfumers so far have responded to its queries about whether the companies used jasmine sourced from the Al-Gharbia region in Egypt in making their fragrances. The jasmine was allegedly produced using child labor, according to a May 2024 BBC documentary.
The Treasury Department published its spring 2024 regulatory agenda for CBP. The agenda continues to list a proposed rule to amend CBP’s regulations on the entry of “certain low-value shipments not exceeding $800 that are eligible for an administrative exemption from duty and tax.”
Although some industries may initially have an easier time complying with the EU’s new anti-deforestation rules when they take effect at the start of next year, others may face a learning curve trying to ramp up their due diligence efforts, supply chain sustainability lawyers and advisers said this week. They also warned that EU companies that trade in large volumes of goods subject to the new law likely won’t be able to comply using only a manual due diligence process.
CBP detained 291 shipments under suspicion of forced labor in June, the agency said this week; the goods were valued at more than $39 million. The monthly report also said CBP seized 1,501 shipments of counterfeit goods in June. It collected $2.3 million worth of duties and fees from goods that had been improperly declared, where the violations were identified in audits.
National Council of Textile Organizations CEO Kimberly Glas, speaking at a left-of-center think tank on trade policy, said that companies need to be able to file antidumping and countervailing duty cases without having to wait so long and pay so much money.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The State Department this week urged companies to increase their due diligence efforts for supply chains that involve certain critical minerals from Rwanda and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, saying illegal trade in gold, tantalum and other minerals from the African Great Lakes Region “continues to play” a role in financing conflict in the region. In a “statement of concern,” the agency said companies trading in these critical minerals may be aiding human rights abuses, including forced labor.