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As CBP moves toward implementation of a forced labor component in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism Trade Compliance program, still hoped for by the end of September (see 2106250045), the agency is working to flesh out what will be required from participants and what benefits will be provided to them. As it stands now, CBP looks set to add a section on social compliance programs related to forced labor to the annual notification letters that are already required of the 300 some current CTPAT Trade Compliance participants, said Carmen Perez, branch chief of the Trade Compliance program at CBP.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from June 28 - July 2 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The ongoing northern border travel ban seems to be leading to a growth in drug seizures found within cargo shipments, said Manuel Garza, Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program director in CBP's Office of Field Operations. “On a normal given year, I could probably count five seizures on the northern border with drugs,” he told the American Association of Exporters and Importers conference June 29. “This past year during COVID, we're probably up to 100, if not more than that,” he said.
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Although CBP was not able to meet its goal of adding forced labor to the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program in 2020, as it had planned (see 2007130041), the agency is trying to do so before Sept. 30 this year, according to Valarie Neuhart, CBP deputy executive director in the office of trade relations. Neuhart, who was speaking to a supply chain meeting on June 24, also said the agency will host industry days on the topic of forced labor the week of June 28 to allow people to see demonstrations of technologies that can trace products' country of origin, or can help firms trace goods through complex supply chains.
A Commerce Department advisory committee is considering proposing recommendations to “overhaul” the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, or CTPAT, program. Norm Schenk, chair of the Trade and Regulatory Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness, said the subcommittee will discuss reforming the program but hasn’t yet taken any formal actions. “Certainly after 9/11 there were a lot of positive things that went in through CTPAT, but quite frankly, it's kind of outlived its usefulness, and there's not a lot of companies that are joining or using it,” Schenk, president of NT Schenk & Associates, said during a June 24 ACSCC meeting. He said the subcommittee will potentially make recommendations to “connect the dots and provide a more comprehensive program that would help CBP and the PGAs achieve their goal.”
Former Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, testifying at a Senate Homeland Security subcommittee hearing, said that in order to implement more withhold release orders, the Department of Homeland Security needs more resources to do investigations in the foreign countries where forced labor is alleged.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from June 1-4 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet remotely June 23, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by June 22.