The bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) held a hearing last week on forced labor in China’s seafood industry and how seafood caught and processed with forced labor ends up in the U.S. supply chains. The CECC’s Chairs, Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) were joined at the hearing by Commissioner Thea Lee, the Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs at the Department of Labor.  In his opening statement Mr. Smith cited the work of The Outlaw Ocean Project whose reporting exposed a “disconcerting pattern of People’s Republic of China (PRC) based companies exploiting the forced labor of Uyghurs and North Koreans to process substantial quantities of seafood destined for the U.S. market.

The United States has asked Mexico to review whether workers at Tecnología Modificada S.A. de C.V., in Nuevo Laredo, a subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.  The facility produces remanufactured automotive parts.   The request, made in response to a petition, marks the sixteenth time the United States has formally invoked the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRM) in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Rep. Mike Gallagher aimed his lance at the Ivory Tower, in a speech Monday to the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Universities, urging the leaders to share his appreciation of the Chinese threat. Mr. Gallagher decried university administrators' perceived indifference to CCP surveillance and intimidation, an ill-regulated flow of expertise overseas, and the role of US Capital in accelerating Chinese military innovation.

The leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party are expanding their investigation into US venture capital firms investing in China’s high technology by launching an inquiry into Sequoia Capital and Sequoia Capital China. Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc) and ranking Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill) are seeking information about Sequoia's investments into PRC artificial intelligence, semiconductor and quantum computing companies, as well as the announced split.

The Administration is being slow in carrying out enforcement activities to prevent goods made with forced labor from entering the US market, Congressional lawmakers and witnesses at a House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing. Customs and Border Protection needs to take a more proactive approach to enforcing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, Homeland Security oversight, accountability and enforcement subcommittee Chairman Dan Bishop (R-NC) commented.

Meetings: Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee Nov 1st 9AM Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Committee Oct 31, 1PM Emerging Technology Technical Advisory Committee Nov 8 and 9, at 9AM Materials and Equipment Technical Advisory Committee Nov. 16, 10:00 AM Transportation and Related Equipment Technical Advisory Committee, November 15,, 9:30 AM.,

The U.S. Census Bureau’s Trade Regulations Branch regularly receives questions regarding who the Ultimate Consignee is in an export transaction. The questions become more complicated when an end user and the Ultimate Consignee are two different entities, and they reside in two different countries. In a two-part posting, Gerry Horner, Chief of the Trade Regulations Branch addresses some of your frequently asked questions on the Ultimate Consignee and the end user based on the Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR).

Rep. Andy Barr’s (R-KY) bipartisan legislation, the Chinese Military and Surveillance Company Sanctions Act of 2023, [HR760] passed unanimously out of the House Financial Services Committee and and will be brought up by the House should it ever return to regular order.

Responding to the failure of the Commerce Department's October 7, 2022 rules to halt innovation at China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation Incorporated (SMIC),   House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) and House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) have called on the adminstration to "rectify the failures by the Department of Commerce to enforce export controls on advanced semiconductors."

Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Chair of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party kept the business of his committee humming last month, despite the rest of the Chamber being run into in the ditch.   The twice-deployed Marine, Princetonian and Georgetown PhD has maintained a steady drumbeat of hearings and press events scolding US firms for doing business with the Chinese and lambasting the administration for not sharing his vitriol.    Year to date, the committee's efforts have been strictly performative, calling for the production of reams of information on a broad array of topics.  Analysis and informed policy reccomendations may follow.

Newly installed FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki outlined her group's  agenda including a whistleblower rewards program, rules targeting real estate and investment advisors, drug trafficking and the rollout of  beneficial ownership information reporting requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act In a presentation to the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists October 3. Ms. Gacki walked attendees through her objectives since being named to head FinCEN in July.   Prevoiusly she served as chief of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) 

FinCEN, a part of the Treasury Department focusing on financial crimes, recently proposed a revision to the beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting rule. The aim of this amendment is to provide an extended deadline for certain newly registered companies to file their initial BOI reports.

FinCEN intends to require individuals to use to obtain a FinCEN identifier, consistent with the final Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirements Rule. Obtaining a FinCEN identifier is voluntary, but the rule requires those seeking to obtain a FinCEN identifier to complete an application and submit it to FinCEN and to update the information provided on the application. Public are invited to comment on: (1) the FinCEN Identifier Application that FinCEN intends to require individuals to use; and (2) FinCEN’s estimate of the burden involved in completing the application.

A government shutdown is set to severely impact the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and other trade enforcement bureaus, leaving over 185,000 frontline personnel, spanning from law enforcement, security analysts, to disaster response officials, working without remuneration. Key trade operations – exporters, importers, transportation entities, customs brokers, and all linked to U.S. global trade – are bracing for interruptions. This is especially true if agencies pivotal for trade, such as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Department of Commerce are affected.

Four Republican House Committee Chairs sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas criticizing the implementation and enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), complaining that not enough has been done to penalize violators, and calling for more resources to be dedicated to enforcement.   

While Ford Motor Company announced on September 25 that it has paused its partnership with world’s leading EV battery maker, Republican lawmakers complain that Ford will not release confidential business information pertaining to its agreement to license Chinese technology.

On July 3, 2023, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a recent actions notice, reminding holders of property blocked pursuant to OFAC sanctions regulations published in Chapter V of Title 31 of the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) of the requirement to provide OFAC with an Annual Report of Blocked Property (ARBP).  

The Defense Trade Advisory Group (DTAG) will meet in open session from 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 12, 2023. This will be a hybrid meeting

The United States, the European Union and other proponents on Monday apparently failed to provide any convincing reasons as to why the World Trade Organization’s 1998 moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions should be continued beyond the 13th ministerial conference, which is going to be held in Abu Dhabi in February 2024, our correspondent writes.

House Ways and Means Committee members are calling on the Administration and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to fight Canada’s unilateral imposition of a digital service tax. The members noted that almost all 140 economies participating in the OECD work to reach agreement on updated international tax rules approved a one-year extension of the moratorium on DSTs through December 31, 2024. “We are disappointed that Canada is unfortunately moving against this global consensus with a punitive DST scheduled to take effect next year.”