Ways and Means Committee Democrats Complain Forced Labor Task Force Deadline Missed
The Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee have told the leaders of CBP and the Department of Homeland Security that the failure to establish the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force by the April 28 deadline in statute is unacceptable.
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“Congress approved the [U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement] Implementation Act a few months ago with a robust level of bipartisan and bicameral support not seen in two decades. Key to this bipartisan support was a strengthening of enforcement mechanisms in both the trade agreement and in the implementing legislation,” they wrote in a letter sent May 11. They suggested that when the administration doesn't comply with the law implementing USMCA, it shows a lack of “commitment to trade enforcement in general, and to the USMCA’s implementation and success.”
The task force is the hub for “enforcement of the prohibition on imports made by or with forced labor,” they said. While enforcement has increased since the passage of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act in 2015, they said that was modest, and “the use of forced labor remains rampant across the globe, and goods produced by or with forced labor continue to enter the United States.”