The EU's parliament is considering a proposal to ban goods made with forced labor from entering into commerce, as was reported before it was officially announced (see 2209120063). EU customs authorities will aim to stop products made with forced labor at EU borders. A FAQ about the proposal, which would have to pass both the parliament and the European Council, says the customs agents would take a "robust, risk-based enforcement approach. In a preliminary phase, they will assess forced labour risks based on many different sources of information that together should facilitate the identification of risks and help focus their efforts. These may include submissions from civil society, a database of forced labour risks focusing on specific products and geographic areas, and the due diligence that companies carry out."
Electric vehicle manufacturing and supply chain resilience in semiconductors continued as major topics in the U.S.-Mexico High-Level Economic Dialogue, and pharmaceutical supply chain resilience is now also on the agenda, according to a joint statement after the HLED in Mexico City Sept. 12.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. believes that a way to preserve the economic benefits of chemical plants and also fight climate change is to impose a carbon border adjustment tax on certain goods.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai frequently talks about the need for a smarter globalization, which she calls Globalization 2.0, which is more resilient and more environmentally sustainable.
India chose not to sign onto the trade pillar in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which focuses on digital trade, trade facilitation, science-based sanitary and phytosanitary rules, trade in environmental goods, and laws to protect labor rights.
Trade facilitation -- or how customs is administered -- and digital trade practices are non-tariff barriers that the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework can tackle, and therefore help U.S. exporters, particularly small businesses. That was the message from a senior official at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which is managing one of the four pillars of the IPEF.
A call between U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU's top trade official, covered what the U.S. characterizes as "supply chain vulnerabilities," but the EU and U.S. readouts of the Sept. 1 call characterized the discussion differently.
Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., told U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai that they do not want the World Trade Organization Appellate Body to be resurrected. The WTO no longer has binding dispute settlement, because members can appeal into the void if they do not like the results of a case in Geneva.
The HARD ROCK Act, or the Homeland Acceleration of Recovering Deposits and Renewing Onshore Critical Keystones, would require the Pentagon to report on the benefits and risks of proposed legislation to increase the availability of strategic and critical materials that are sourced primarily from China or Russia. That report also would talk about how it would be helpful to integrate the industrial base with allies "with respect to technology transfer, socioeconomic procurement requirements, and export controls."
As the Federal Maritime Commission considers reversing its rulemaking from 2018, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America is arguing that unreasonable practices should continue to be subject to enforcement only if they are "normal, customary and continuous."