Four Indonesian citizens filed suit on March 12 in a California federal court alleging that tuna seller Bumble Bee Foods violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act by knowingly benefiting from a venture that engaged in forced labor. The four individuals -- Akhmad, Angga and Muhammad Sahrudin and Muhammad Syafi'i -- said they worked as laborers on longline fishing vessels that Bumble Bee sourced its albacore tuna from and alleged that the company knowingly benefited from their forced labor (Akhmad Sahrudin v. Bumblee Bee Foods, S.D. Cal. # 3:25-00583).
CBP processed more than 2.7 million entries in February valued at more than $303 billion, according to the agency's monthly update released on March 12. CBP also said nearly $7.6 billion in duties would be collected by the U.S. government.
A bill that aims to create a true single window for importers, as well as reduce redundancies in advance export manifest data submissions, was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.
CBP has postponed indefinitely an enhancement within ACE that would withhold the release of de minimis shipments that exceed the $800 per person/per day threshold, according to the February development and deployment schedule released last week.
Of the 4,437 shipments that CBP has flagged for potential violations of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act since the start of the federal government's 2025 fiscal year in October, nearly 88% of those shipments are from the automotive and aerospace industries, according to CBP data released in mid-February. The data reflects volumes between Oct. 1, 2024 and Jan. 31, 2025.
The House Committee on Homeland Security issued its oversight plan for the year, and only mentioned trade once, when it wrote that it plans to "review the Department’s efforts to better facilitate legitimate trade and travel with updates to trusted traveler programs and expansion of CBP Preclearance locations."
CBP posted the following documents for the March 5 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting:
China used forced labor from North Korean nationals on its tuna fishing vessels, advocacy group Environmental Justice Foundation said in a report published Feb. 23. EJF found evidence that North Koreans worked on 12 Chinese vessels and were subject to "physical abuse, verbal abuse and excessive overtime."
CBP processed more than 2.9 million entry summaries in January, valued at more than $338 billion, according to a recent update. The agency also identified estimated duties of nearly $7.9 billion to be collected by the U.S. government.
CBP's Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee will be holding its quarterly meeting on March 5 in Atlanta, according to a Federal Register notice.