Changes in how the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee is organizing its working groups, as well as further discussion about the potential incorporation of "real-time modern processes," are coming at a time when CBP appears to be putting greater emphasis on trade enforcement as part of a broader effort to bolster national security.
Senators and witnesses called for legislative action to combat imports of seafood caught with forced labor during a June 12 hearing.
A report on forced labor in critical mineral supply chains identified "major entities" operating in the Xinjiang province of China and documented evidence of their involvement in labor transfer programs of Uyghurs from the region. The report also highlighted the risk that products made by those entities have entered the global market over the previous two years.
CBP's Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee will be holding its quarterly meeting on June 18 in Washington, D.C., according to a Federal Register notice.
CBP has issued a withhold release order against Zhen Fa 7, a Chinese-flagged fishing vessel, amid allegations that the ship uses forced labor to harvest seafood, the agency said in a May 28 release.
Chinese companies on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List are establishing subsidiaries away from Xinjiang to avoid U.S. scrutiny, risk intelligence firm Kharon said May 20.
Thea Lee, head of the Bureau of International Labor Affairs during the Biden administration, complained that the tariff approach of the Trump administration ignores forced labor, and that the Department of Government Efficiency ended all the programs ILAB funded around the world. Those programs aimed to convince local societies to end child labor, to help foreign countries improve working conditions, and they funded research on the best ways to achieve these goals. The grants totaled more than $575 million, and some were scheduled to run through 2026, 2027 or 2028.
The Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) has updated its Due Diligence Reporting Template for forced labor to include an annual due diligence reporting date for suppliers, the company announced in a May 13 release.
A coalition of food producers, including the American Honey Producers Association, the Catfish Farmers of America, the Crawfish Processors Alliance, the Louisiana Farm Bureau Crawfish Committee, and the Southern Shrimp Alliance, sent a letter May 9 asking President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on "unfairly traded imports" of products similar to theirs.
Robert Silvers, a former DHS official who worked on forced labor enforcement, China policy and issues related to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., joined Ropes & Gray. Silvers will co-chair the firm’s national security practice, where he will focus on “critical matters at the intersection of national security, technology, and law,” it said. He left DHS in December after serving as undersecretary for policy and chair of the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force.