The top trade officials in the U.S., Canada and Mexico gathered virtually to celebrate the one-year anniversary of USMCA, which is July 1, with Canadian and Mexican ministers emphasizing the worth of integrated supply chains and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai emphasizing the elements of USMCA that protect workers in the region and around the world. Tai said at a Wilson Center program June 30, "A good next step in this increased cooperation can be on the issue of forced labor. The USMCA includes a strong obligation to prohibit the importation of goods produced with forced labor. Working together to address this critical economic and moral issue would send a powerful message to the world."
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The Bureau of Industry and Security's decision to add five more Chinese companies to the Entity List (see 2106230004) is part of a “government-wide effort” under the Biden administration to take “strong action” against China’s human rights violations against Muslim minority groups, the Commerce Department said June 24. The move, which increased the total number of parties “implicated” by the U.S. in Xinjiang human rights abuses to 53, will restrict their ability to access commodities, software and technology subject to the Export Administration Regulations, Commerce said. “As we made clear during this month’s G7 summit, the United States is committed to employing all of its tools, including export controls, to ensure that global supply chains are free from the use of forced labor and technology is not misused to abuse human rights,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement. “The Commerce Department will continue to take firm, decisive action to hold China and other perpetrators of human rights abuses accountable.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security added five Chinese companies to the Entity List for their involvement in the government’s human rights abuses against Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang region, the agency said in a final rule. For each of the entities, BIS will impose a license requirement for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations. The final rule takes effect June 24.
The Biden administration emphasized how reaching an agreement to end a 17-year-dispute over government subsidies to both Airbus and Boeing does more than just lift tariffs for at least five years. They see the most significant plank of the agreement as the one in which European Union countries agree to prevent foreign investments in the aerospace sector that are done to acquire technology or know-how, and to counter investments by European aerospace companies in China or other countries that are done in response to incentives or because the investments are a condition to sell in that market.
The leaders of Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, the U.S. and Italy agreed to work collectively toward eradicating the use of all forms of forced labor in global supply chains, and said they want concrete suggestions ready before the G-7 trade ministers' meeting in October.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet remotely June 23, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by June 22.
A Japanese and a Korean economist said that trade tensions between their two countries are no longer really disrupting Korea's semiconductor industry, though they are still increasing costs for some of the Japanese exporters.
CBP's “claim of 'forced labor, abuse of crew members and withholding of pay' is fabrication that is totally inconsistent with facts,” China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said during a May 31 news conference in response to a question about a withhold release order issued against the Dalian Ocean Fishing Company. The company “has never sold any products to the U.S., and there's nothing to detain in the first place,” he said.
No date has been scheduled yet for a vote on the China package championed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., but lengthy amendments from senators are continuing to flow in, many with trade implications.