The Canada Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise withdrew complaints against Hugo Boss Canada and GobiMin, the agency announced on April 24 and April 25. Both companies participated in "good faith," with GobiMin divesting from a gold mine that allegedly used Uyghur forced labor, and Hugo Boss participating in a confidential dispute settlement process with the parties that filed the complaint against the company and providing a "satisfactory response or remedy to their allegations," a CORE spokesperson said in an emailed news release.
Perkins Coie partner Michael House told an audience of automotive supply chain professionals that this fiscal year has seen not only a sharp increase in the number of detentions, "but even more important, in our view, is the scope of products being detained has diversified, and there's been a steady increase in detentions of merchandise that were outside those original so-called priority sectors."
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Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wants CBP to investigate the role of slave labor in goods being sold over retail apps Temu and Shein, he said in an April 16 letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Rubio asked that CBP investigate the exporters and, if necessary, add them to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act’s Entity List, which keeps track of companies that sell merchandise produced with slave labor. Both companies have abused the de minimis provision to get goods tainted by forced labor into the U.S., the senator said.
The two top lawmakers on the House Select Committee on China on April 16 asked the State Department to “intensify and elevate its global diplomatic efforts” to ensure the EU passes an agreement to ban imports of goods made with forced labor.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai gave testimony April 17 to the Senate Finance Committee regarding President Joe Biden’s 2024 trade policy agenda. She touched mainly on trade deal enforcement, U.S. exporters’ access to new markets and the USTR’s new stance on digital trade, though she also discussed issues such as forced labor and the upcoming legislation on the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., sent a letter to President Joe Biden April 15 regarding the “urgent threat” posed by the Chinese retail application Temu, an app that has been seeking to nudge its way into a market still dominated by Amazon.
The House Ways and Means Committee is set on April 17 to consider several just-introduced trade bills, including a retroactive extension of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, new restrictions on de minimis and restrictions on electric vehicle tax credits.
CBP in March identified 749 shipments valued at more than $32 million for further examination based on the suspected use of forced labor, including goods subject to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and withhold release orders, the agency said in its most recent operational statistics update. The number of shipments detained is up from February's total of 540, but the value of those shipments is sharply down from the $306 million worth of shipments detained in February (see 2403220057). Also in March, CBP seized 1,633 shipments that contained counterfeit goods valued at more than $384 million if the items had been genuine, the agency said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters: