CBP is planning to add forced labor to its list of “Priority Trade Issues,” said the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) Forced Labor Working Group within a set of recommendations released ahead of the March 17 meeting. The agency briefed the working group on “on its intent to proceed with establishing Forced Labor as a Priority Trade Issue,” it said in the recommendations.
Tim Warren
Timothy Warren is Executive Managing Editor of Communications Daily. He previously led the International Trade Today editorial team from the time it was purchased by Warren Communications News in 2012 through the launch of Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. Tim is a 2005 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts and lives in Maryland with his wife and three kids.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from March 8-12 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
CBP posted multiple documents ahead of the March 17 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting:
CBP's continued application of Part 102 NAFTA marking rules for goods imported from Canada and Mexico (see 2103100025) doesn't include some agricultural goods imported under USMCA, said Monika Brenner, chief of the CBP Valuation and Special Programs Branch, during the virtual Georgetown Law International Trade Update on March 10. “For certain goods, it's designated as an S+ in the special subcolumn,” she said. “And for those you actually have to figure out if it's a good of Canada or a good of Mexico.”
The recent focus on forced labor has also created some trade facilitation problems, both of which appear unlikely to go away under the Biden administration, said Paul Rosenthal, a lawyer with Kelley Drye, during the virtual International Trade Update hosted by Georgetown Law on March 9. Rosenthal was asked about the corporate compliance difficulties following CBP forced labor enforcement actions, particularly in countries that the company isn't directly connected to. “The shift has been away from concern about U.S. manufacturing interests to social interests” involving child and forced labor, he said. “And I don't see that shifting. In fact, I see that continuing and accelerating and I think one the big issues” for the administration “will be how to balance those interests,” he said
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from March 1-5 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
CBP posted a new fact sheet on the process for modifying or revoking withhold release orders issued out of suspicion that forced labor was used in the supply chain of imported goods. The fact sheet follows a recent Government Accountability Office report that recommended that CBP provide more information on the subject (see 2103010042).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will extend exclusions on goods used to treat COVID-19 from the Section 301 tariffs on goods from China, the USTR said in a notice on its website. The exclusions were previously set to expire at the end of March (see 2012230076).
CBP is preparing a ruling on whether electronic signatures may be used for issuing an import power-of-attorney, said Emily Simon, chief of the agency's Trade and Commercial Regulations Branch. The Entry Process and Duty Refunds Branch, as well as the Broker Management Branch, are reviewing the matter, she told a March 3 Airforwarders Association virtual event. “My understanding is that we have a ruling being developed right now to address the use of an electronic signature under certain circumstances, but not necessarily all of them in that one particular ruling,” she said. Simon said she couldn't go into more detail because it falls outside her role at CBP.
CBP is investigating possible antidumping and countervailing duty evasion by 15 separate quartz surface products importers, the agency said in a notice posted March 4. The allegations of evasion under the Enforce and Protect Act came the Cambria Company and its lawyer at Schagrin Associates, and CBP consolidated the cases together. The importers were said to have used transshipment through Malaysia to avoid the AD/CV duties on the quartz surface products from China. Even among consolidated EAPA investigations, it's unusual for so many importers to be named.