Kharon, a compliance risk adviser, said over a million kilograms of shoes and related footwear products have been sent to the U.S. by a company whose factory in Quanzhou, China, has accepted dozens of workers from the Xinjiang region. Those workers were placed by government labor transfer programs under the guise of poverty alleviation.
Mara Lee
Mara Lee, Senior Editor, is a reporter for International Trade Today and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in early 2018, after covering health policy, Midwestern Congressional delegations, and the Connecticut economy, insurance and manufacturing sectors for the Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper (established 1674). Before arriving in Washington D.C. to cover Congress in 2005, she worked in Ohio, where she witnessed fervent presidential campaigning every four years.
Anabel Gonzalez, one of the World Trade Organization's deputy directors-general, said in a farewell column that although progress is being made on improving the WTO, "governments face some tough choices in the months and years to come to deal with pressing matters that, if left unchecked, could seriously erode the multilateral trading system and damage trade as an engine of growth and prosperity."
The National Foreign Trade Council said Canada's proposed digital services tax "is clearly discriminatory towards U.S. companies," and the bill's introduction is shortsighted.
The titanium sponge working group, convened after a Section 232 report on the product, as an alternative to imposing tariffs or tariff rate quotas, says that eliminating the 15% tariff on titanium sponge could benefit domestic titanium producers.
The White House said the U.S. and Mongolia are exploring opportunities to increase trade. A joint statement with Mongolia said they want to "pursue opportunities for cooperation in the mineral resources sector, clean energy, food security, and the digital economy through existing and new mechanisms, including for capacity building and trade promotion."
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's new automated message process for plants, vegetables and fruit imports (see 230707001) will help importers know more quickly if they have submitted a species or subspecies that doesn't exist, and, if accurate data is submitted ahead of arrival, should help cargo get released more quickly.
China's exports of cars have jumped sharply as its domestic car demand has flattened, experts said, but the impacts for U.S. auto production may not repeat what happened to other manufacturing sectors undercut by cheap Chinese imports.
Mexico has rejected a rapid response mechanism complaint from the U.S. concerning employer actions at a lead, zinc and copper mine called San Martin, in Zacatecas state. This is the first time Mexico has disagreed with a request, but the government signaled this position during the trinational summit last month (see 2307070043).
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., talked about the U.S.-Korea trade deal, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and the Inflation Reduction Act's restrictions on electric vehicle battery inputs with top Korean officials during a recent visit to Soeul.
The interagency committee that manages rapid response labor complaints under the USMCA made one pro-business change to the petition and investigation guidelines, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce highlighted in a recent blog post.