China plans to adhere to all aspects of its recent investment deal with the European Union, including ratifying international conventions on forced labor, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a March 7 news conference, according to an interpreter. “I can say it explicitly that China will honor its commitment in the agreement including making efforts to ratify International Labor Organizations (rules),” Wang said. Forced labor concerns have permeated European Union parliamentarians' thinking on the EU-China investment deal, and it is widely seen that certain provisions of the agreement will make parts of the deal unenforceable, including on forced labor (see 2101250052).
Following a package of measures meant to flush out ties between United Kingdom businesses and forced labor practices in China's Xinjiang region, compliance efforts have ramped up to ensure that supply chains are free of any association with the practice imposed on the region's Uighur Muslim population. In October 2020 and January of this year, U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced a suite of four policies meant to eliminate forced labor from supply chains (see 2101120056). The policies include business guidance to U.K. companies with links to Xinjiang; strengthening the Modern Slavery Act (MSA), that includes levying fines for non-compliance; transparency requirements for government procurement; and a review of export controls to Xinjiang.
Following Canada's imposition of restrictions on trade with China's Xinjiang region, stemming from the use of forced labor and other human rights violations, industry is expressing anxiety over its ability to come into full compliance with the new regulations, a lawyer said. Cliff Sosnow, partner at Fasken, told Export Compliance Daily that Canada's new regulations are meant to make it harder on importers to import goods with links to Xinjiang and to ramp up the pressure on companies to show due diligence in regard to the sanctity of their supply chains.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet remotely on March 17, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by March 16.
Sen. Tom Cotton, one of the most prominent China hawks in Congress, thinks that the Bureau of Industry and Security is buried within an organization “hostile to the aggressive use of export controls,” and so it should be moved from the Commerce Department to the State Department, because, he says, that department puts national security first. Cotton, who has published a lengthy report on what he calls the economic long war with China, discussed his views during an online program at the Reagan Presidential Foundation on Feb. 18.
The European Union wants to work more closely with the U.S. on sanctions and technology issues and is hoping to establish an international trade and technology council to regulate emerging technologies, EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said. Speaking during a Feb. 1 event hosted by the German Marshall Fund, Dombrovskis also called for more EU-U.S. unity on a range of other topics, including reform at the World Trade Organization and measures to counter illegal Chinese trade practices. “This is precisely why we need to put our current trade disputes behind us,” Dombrovskis said, referencing the Boeing/Airbus dispute and U.S. Section 232 tariffs on European steel and aluminum (see 2101270049).
As the text of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment was released Jan. 22, analysts are evaluating how much of a difference the agreement, if ratified, would make in the economic relationship between the parties to the pact. The Institut Montaigne, a French think tank that supports free markets, published a policy paper that said, “Overall, the EU-China CAI has been oversold and underpowered.” It noted that most of the annexes, that actually list the sectors in China that would be open to European investment, are still not published. Moreover, author François Godement said that there are qualifiers in the text that make some commitments unenforceable, such as China's pledge to pursue ratifications of International Labor Organization standards on forced labor.
Congress and the incoming administration should strengthen and maintain a range of export controls and sanctions to prevent China from acquiring sensitive U.S. technologies and items used for repression, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said in its 2020 annual report. The report and an executive summary, issued Jan. 14, urge the U.S. to continue to dedicate resources to restrict exports to China in order to prevent human rights violations.
China criticized trade restrictions announced by the United Kingdom and Canada this week, which included export controls, import restrictions and other penalties for involvement with forced labor practices in Xinjiang. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson dismissed the allegations and urged both countries to reverse the measures. “Is there the slightest seriousness in their foreign policies?” the spokesperson said Jan. 13, according to a transcript of a regular news conference provided by the ministry. The comment was made in response to a question from a Reuters reporter, according to the transcript. “The U.K. and Canada should immediately revoke their erroneous decision, stop meddling in China's internal affairs and harming China's interests.”
The United Kingdom and Canada announced a range of measures to restrict trade with China’s Xinjiang region over allegations of human rights violations committed against Uighurs and other ethnic minorities. The measures include export controls, restrictions on certain imports produced by forced labor in the region and penalties for companies that violate the measures. Both countries also issued business advisories for companies operating in the region, warning them about compliance risks and exposure to penalties.