CBP detained 291 shipments under suspicion of forced labor in June, the agency said this week; the goods were valued at more than $39 million. The monthly report also said CBP seized 1,501 shipments of counterfeit goods in June. It collected $2.3 million worth of duties and fees from goods that had been improperly declared, where the violations were identified in audits.
National Council of Textile Organizations CEO Kimberly Glas, speaking at a left-of-center think tank on trade policy, said that companies need to be able to file antidumping and countervailing duty cases without having to wait so long and pay so much money.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The State Department this week urged companies to increase their due diligence efforts for supply chains that involve certain critical minerals from Rwanda and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, saying illegal trade in gold, tantalum and other minerals from the African Great Lakes Region “continues to play” a role in financing conflict in the region. In a “statement of concern,” the agency said companies trading in these critical minerals may be aiding human rights abuses, including forced labor.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The administration has added seafood, PVC, which is used in vinyl flooring, and aluminum to its priority enforcement sectors under the Ugyhur Forced Labor Prevention Act, it announced in its strategy update this week. This is the first time priority sectors have been added since the law went into effect two years ago; the original priority sectors of apparel, cotton products, polysilicon and solar panels made from polysilicon, and tomatoes remain.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called for a "legislative fix" to the de minimis exception "and the exploitation of that exception," the first time the administration has clearly said it hopes Congress will restrict the program that allows purchasers to import up to $800 worth of goods per day without paying tariffs.
A former prisoner at the Hunan Chishan Prison in China sued Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp. and Techtronic Industries Co. in the Eastern District of Wisconsin for importing goods made with forced convict labor. The individual, using the pseudonym Xu Lun, alleged that the firms violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which allows for civil suits against parties that knowingly benefit from taking part in a venture which the party "knew or should have known was engaged in forced labor" (Xu Lun v. Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp., E.D. Wis. # 24-803).
Sourcemap, an international firm that offers supply chain tracing and mapping services, said its government sources are saying that more companies will be added to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List before the end of the year -- and that automotive companies and consumer electronics are in the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force's crosshairs.
The U.K. must reassess whether it should investigate cotton imports from China suspected of being made with forced labor after an appellate court ruled last month that the country’s National Crime Agency wrongly decided against opening the probe.