The Court of International Trade on Dec. 12 denied the government's motion for reconsideration of the trade court's previous decision to vacate CBP's finding that Dominican exporter Kingtom Aluminio made its aluminum extrusions with forced labor. Although Judge Timothy Reif said he made a mistake of fact in the initial decision, the mistake was a "harmless error," and that no mistake of law was made.
The House Select Committee on China agreed that the Bureau of Industry and Security's connected vehicle rule, which was issued at the end of the Biden administration but starts to bite in mid-March, should be codified.
Workers' rights activists during a panel discussion this week praised the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act but warned that enforcement is slowing under the Trump administration.
Expanding access to manifest data from sources to include air cargo manifests and other transportation modes could provide the public and trade stakeholders with greater ability to ferret out forced labor in the supply chain, said Laura Murphy, senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Human Rights Initiative, in a Dec. 8 blog post.
As Chinese auto manufacturers establish outposts in Mexico, U.S. importers will need to ensure that those Chinese manufacturers don't have ties to forced labor situations in the Xinjiang region, supply chain data visibility provider Kharon said in a recent brief.
A Wisconsin federal court on Dec. 1 dismissed a case from a former prisoner at the Nunan Chishan Prison in China against Milwaukee Electric Tool and its parent company, Techtronic Industries, for allegedly importing goods made with forced labor. Judge Brett Ludwig of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin held that the civil remedy of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which is the statute the prisoner sued under, doesn't apply to conduct occurring outside the U.S. (Xu Lun v. Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp., E.D. Wis. # 24-803).
CBP's and data technology provider Altana's foray into developing a technology tool that can provide both regulators and stakeholders with deep visibility into products' supply chains may serve as a foundation for what trade facilitation might look like in the future, Altana's vice president and head of trade compliance Amy Morgan asserted in a Dec. 2 webinar hosted by the American Association of Exporters and Importers.
Data technology provider Kharon said CBP has expanded its agreement with the company for its global risk analytics platform to enforce the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and other customs and trade laws, according to a Dec. 2 release.
CBP is offering a new benefit to members of the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism Trade Compliance program: an advance notice that the agency is issuing withhold release order, according to a FAQ document on CTPAT Trade Compliance forced labor requirements.
CBP has issued four withhold release orders so far in 2025, which is above 2022 and 2024 levels but well below the 12 WROs issued in 2020, according to recently updated CBP data.