The Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) has 72 additions to its list of goods that could potentially be produced by forced labor or child labor, including a record 37 new goods that have not previously been identified as involving labor exploitation, ILAB said Sept. 5 in its latest edition of the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor.
The Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) is seeking comments on its Comply Chain: Business Tools for Labor Compliance in Global Supply Chains, as well as three reports on child labor and forced labor in certain foreign countries, through Dec. 16, it said in a Federal Register notice.
The Department of Labor's Bureau of International Affairs said in a notice it's removing two goods from its List of Products Requiring Federal Contractor Certification as to Forced or Indentured Child Labor: shrimp from Thailand and garments from Vietnam. Federal contractors who supply products on Labor's list must certify that the product wasn't made using child labor.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is extending a public comment period for an information collection involving Section 232 investigation requests. BIS said that, after receiving a request, it investigates the “effects of imports of specific commodities” on U.S. national security, including by distributing surveys, and may provide those findings to the president for possible adjustments to import tariffs. The collection helps BIS “account for the public burden associated with the surveys distributed to determine the impact on national security.” The agency had requested public comments in April and is now allowing for another 30 days of comments.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has sent a rule for interagency review that could propose new import restrictions on certain Chinese connected vehicle parts. BIS sent the proposed rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Aug. 20. An agency official in July said BIS was planning to release the rule sometime this month (see 2407170043 and 2408050044), building on an advance notice of proposed rulemaking released in February (see 2402290034).
The Bureau of Industry and Security has further defined the scope of its upcoming proposed rule restricting imports of certain Chinese connected vehicle parts, Reuters reported this week.
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.
The Federal Communications Commission is launching a voluntary labeling program for wireless consumer “Internet of Things” products that have been certified and tested to meet FCC IoT cybersecurity standards, the commission said in a final rule released July 29.
African journalists asked Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa Constance Hamilton and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of African Affairs Joy Basu if their countries would stay in or return to the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
Momentum on a bill to prevent the sale of counterfeit goods in e-commerce has slowed, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., acknowledged. Earlier, he had hoped the Shop Safe (Stopping Harmful Offers on Platforms by Screening Against Fakes in E-commerce) bill would move in the House Judiciary Committee in May or June.