One of the leaders in the move to pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act recently introduced a new bill that would require the administration to produce an annual report on foreign persons "found facilitating the exploitation of child labor" in the mining sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and would instruct the administration to impose sanctions on those individuals.
A European human rights advocacy group recently filed a complaint with the German government against BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen alleging the three automakers aren’t meeting German Supply Chain Act due diligence requirements that their supply chains are free from forced labor.
Countries in the Five Eyes Alliance, plus Japan, have issued a joint declaration on non-market practices and trade related economic coercion that they say "undermine the functioning of and confidence in the rules-based multilateral trading system by distorting trade, investment, and competition and harming relations between countries."
The U.S.-European Union Trade and Technology Council could soon begin prioritizing China issues over Russia, which has dominated much of the group’s time since it was established in 2021, said Frances Burwell, a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center. She also said the TTC should focus more of its energy on investment screening, particularly as both sides consider a new tool to screen certain outbound investments (see 2305110033).
The chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee used his perch to promote a bill he sponsored that would allow the president to lower duties on non-import-sensitive goods made by a country that lost exports due to coercive actions; increase duties on imports from the "foreign adversary" committing the coercion; and allow the U.S. to more easily facilitate trade, including exports, with the coerced parties (see 2302230021).
In a joint statement after the second annual deputies' meeting for the NAFTA successor, U.S., Mexican and Canadian officials said they talked about the concrete steps needed to ensure that goods made with forced labor cannot be imported into Mexico, Canada or the U.S.
Two U.S. readouts of the meetings between deputies from the three USMCA countries focused on a multitude of irritants and concerns the U.S. has with Canada and Mexico but didn't mention talks on how to resolve the U.S. violation of USMCA in its interpretation of the auto rules of origin (see 2301110058). Mexico and Canada did not issue their own readouts.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and ranking member Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, told U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai that USMCA's full potential has not been realized, and that USTR must pursue "robust enforcement."
The Office of Foreign Assets Controls designated Chinese fishing companies Dalian Ocean Fishing and Pingtan Marine Enterprise and their respective leaders, Li Zhenyu and Xinrong Zhuo, along with eight other affiliated entities and 157 vessels for serious human rights abuses related to Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in violation of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, according to a Dec. 9 news release.
A readout of a Dec. 1 meeting between U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Mexican Economy Secretary Raquel Buenrostro, a new appointee, said Tai "reiterated the importance" of Mexico imposing a ban on the import of goods made with forced labor. Tai also said it's urgent consultations over what the U.S. sees as discriminatory investment policies in Mexico's energy sector make "meaningful progress."