Sheffield Hallam University issued reports detailing Uyghur forced labor in the cotton, polysilicon, PVC and metals industries presaged withhold release orders and detentions against goods containing those inputs. Now, its Forced Labor Lab is offering the public a massive list of companies that operate in the Uyghur region, whose products are therefore considered to be made with forced labor unless importers can prove otherwise.
Mara Lee
Mara Lee, Senior Editor, is a reporter for International Trade Today and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in early 2018, after covering health policy, Midwestern Congressional delegations, and the Connecticut economy, insurance and manufacturing sectors for the Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper (established 1674). Before arriving in Washington D.C. to cover Congress in 2005, she worked in Ohio, where she witnessed fervent presidential campaigning every four years.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Deputy USTR Jayme White headed to Cancun, Mexico, to meet with Mexican Economy Secretary Raquel Buenrostro and Canada's trade minister, Mary Ng, ahead of the official USMCA Free Trade Commission meeting on July 6.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., recently said CBP needs to do more to know what's inside packages imported under the de minimis threshold, adding that the agency “has no idea what's coming in.”
The ability to import low-value packages without paying duties is a benefit to consumers and businesses, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other trade groups that use de minimis are arguing, as they lobby against bipartisan efforts to curtail de minimis eligibility.
CBP and the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee, or COAC, have "several issues where the COAC and CBP have agreed to disagree," in a customs modernization proposal, said Flexport's Caroline Dale (see 2306050069), but the lengthy work to come to consensus is just the start.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asked the FDA commissioner to justify importing a different formulation of the cancer infusion drug cisplatin that has been approved in the U.S., from Qilu Pharmaceutical in China.
CBP hopes that the customs modernization law is passed in time to use its authorities in the reprogramming of ACE, with a goal of providing CBP and partner government agencies "with better quality data, much earlier in the supply chain, often in real time," John Leonard, deputy executive assistant commissioner in CBP's Office of Trade, said June 20.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said advocates for free trade agreements who argue that 95% of customers are outside our borders are myopic.
The U.S. invoked the rapid response labor mechanism for a lead, zinc and cooper mine owned by Grupo Mexico, the second time the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has used the USMCA tool outside the auto parts sector.
The chairmen of the House Small Business Committee and the House Select Committee on China are asking for a detailed briefing by the end of June on DOJ's efforts to combat Chinese intellectual property theft.