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).
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
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.
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.
CBP has detained thousands of Porsche, Bentley and Audi cars in U.S. ports after a supplier to parent company Volkswagen found a "Chinese subcomponent" in the vehicles that violated the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, the Financial Times reported on Feb. 14. The delivery will be delayed until as late as the end of March, the paper said.
CBP in January identified 424 shipments valued at more than $236 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 value of those shipments is up from December, when CBP identified 450 shipments worth more than $187 million (see 2401260077). Also in January, CBP seized 1,814 shipments that contained counterfeit goods valued at more than $718 million if the items had been genuine, the agency said.
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.
Midway through the second term of solar safeguards, imports of solar panels (modules) and cells have been climbing, and the market has almost entirely shifted to bifacial solar panels, which were at first carved out of the safeguard. Whether a decision to revoke that exclusion in 2019 was legal is still being litigated (see 2311130031 and 2401290014).
Forbes reported that Walmart's online platform and Amazon have listings for canned tomatoes or tomato paste from the brands Nina, Gino and Zehrat Safa, and it said those brands are produced by Heibei Tomato Industry. That Chinese company says on "its website that 'raw materials come from Xinjiang,'" the article said.