With no legislative action on a proposal to end China's eligibility for de minimis shipments, one of its authors, Sen. Sherrod Brown, is asking the Biden administration to end de minimis treatment for all e-commerce purchases, or, at least, stop de minimis treatment for goods subject to partner government agency review, products that are trade priorities, and goods subject to Section 301 and Section 232 tariffs.
CBP posted the following documents ahead of the March 6 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting, which begins at 1 p.m. EST:
Seafood processed by North Korean guest workers in China is finding its way into U.S. supply chains, despite U.S. laws that presume all goods made by North Korean nationals are made with forced labor, according to a report by the Outlaw Ocean Project published Feb. 25 in The New Yorker. Relying on government documents, social media, local news reports and local investigators, the journalism non-profit said it found 15 seafood processing plants that used over 1,000 North Korean laborers since 2017, 10 of which shipped seafood to over 70 U.S. importers. Chinese companies identified in the report as using North Korean labor include Dalian Haiqing Food, Dandong Galicia Seafood, Dandong Omeca Food, Dandong Taifeng Foodstuff, Dandong Yuanyi Refined Seafoods, Donggang Haimeng Foodstuff and Donggang Xinxin Foodstuff.
Kelley Drye customs attorney John Foote, in analyzing the news that some Porsches, Audis and Bentleys couldn't enter the U.S. because of a part connected to Uyghur forced labor, (see 2402150026), said the story is an example of thorough supply chain tracing and ethical compliance action from Volkswagen, the company that made the cars.
The leaders of the House Select Committee on China on Feb. 22 urged the Volkswagen Group to improve its compliance with the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act following a report that CBP seized thousands of the company’s Audi, Bentley and Porsche cars at U.S. ports for illegally containing parts made with forced labor in Xinjiang, China (see 2402150026).
A group of 12 members of the House Ways and Means Committee has urged the Biden administration to investigate allegations that at least six Chinese fishing companies that supply U.S. markets employ Uyghur forced labor.
Exporter Hoshine Silicon (Jia Xing) Industry Co. filed a lawsuit at the Court of International Trade to contest a withhold release order on the company and CBP's rejection of the exporter's petition to be removed from the WRO. The company, which goes by Jiaxing Hoshine, said the WRO has done "significant and irreparable damage" to its business and reputation and that CBP has skirted the law by failing to disclose the evidence it used in issuing the WRO (Hoshine Silicon (Jia Xing) Industry Co. v. U.S., CIT # 24-00048).
A bipartisan group of 11 House members urged the Biden administration on Feb. 16 to impose Global Magnitsky Act sanctions on seven Chinese companies for allegedly using Uyghur forced labor to provide seafood to U.S. markets.
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The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet March 6 remotely and in person in Charleston, South Carolina, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by March 1.