Chinese cartridge exporter Ninestar Corp. told the Court of International Trade in a July 26 reply brief that it's not attempting to "exhaust its remedies" before the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force by requesting removal from the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List. Responding to the government's bid to dismiss the case, Ninestar said it's merely asking FLETF to "take a new agency action, based on a different legal standard and a different evidentiary record" (Ninestar Corp. v. United States, CIT # 23-00182).
Forced Labor
CBP is the primary U.S. agency tasked with combating forced labor in international trade. It is the only agency with legal authority to take enforcement action and prevent entry into domestic commerce of goods produced with forced labor. CBP combats forced labor by issuing Withhold Release Orders (WROs) and Findings, and enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), and Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). Goods subject to WROs and Findings, UFLPA, and CAATSA status cannot be entered at any ports of the U.S.
Trade Law Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week, in case you missed them. All articles can be found by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Trade Law Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week, in case you missed them. All articles can be found by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The U.S. filed its own supplemental brief July 9 in response to a recent Supreme Court decision, FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, arguing that an advocacy group and plaintiff in a forced labor case (see 2402230046) lacks standing to bring its suit to the Court of International Trade (International Rights Advocates v. Alejandro Mayorkas, CIT # 23-00165).
Anti-forced labor nonprofit International Rights Advocates on July 11 addressed the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, which denied standing to anti-abortion medical associations and individual doctors challenging the FDA's regulation of mifepristone. In fending off the government's claims that IRAdvocates lacks standing to challenge CBP's delay in responding to a withhold release order petition, the advocacy group said its case is "fundamentally distinguishable" from Alliance (International Rights Advocates v. Alejandro Mayorkas, CIT # 23-00165).
The Court of International Trade on July 10 kept the vast majority of the confidential record shielded from the public in Chinese printer cartridge exporter Ninestar Corp.'s suit against its placement on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List. Judge Gary Katzmann only ordered an eight-page stretch of the confidential record unsealed, given that it detailed the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force's "standard operating procedures."
The Court of International Trade on July 10 granted in part and denied in part Chinese printer cartridge exporter Ninestar Corp.'s motion to unseal and unredact the confidential record in the company's suit against its placement on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List. Judge Gary Katzmann kept most of the confidential information in the case from the public, save for an eight-page chunk of the confidential record, which describes the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force's "standard operating procedures." Katzmann also kept most of the privileged information on the record away from Ninestar's counsel, with a few exceptions, on the grounds that, if revealed, the information would endanger a key informant.
A former prisoner at the Hunan Chishan Prison in China sued Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp. and Techtronic Industries Co. in the Eastern District of Wisconsin for importing goods made with forced convict labor. The individual, using the pseudonym Xu Lun, alleged that the firms violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which allows for civil suits against parties that knowingly benefit from taking part in a venture which the party "knew or should have known was engaged in forced labor" (Xu Lun v. Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp., E.D. Wis. # 24-803).
The U.K. must reassess whether it should investigate cotton imports from China suspected of being made with forced labor after an appellate court ruled last month that the country’s National Crime Agency wrongly decided against opening the probe.
After a remand order forced the Commerce Department to use Brazilian rather than Mexican labor cost data in calculating two Chinese exporters’ value, those exporters pushed back on the decision and the subsequent increase they saw in their own antidumping duties (New American Keg v. U.S., CIT # 20-00008).