CBP Set to Issue Proposed Forced Labor Regs; Progress on Regs for Low-Value Shipments, Bonding

CBP looks set to issue a proposed overhaul of its regulations on forced labor in the near term, Ana Hinojosa, executive director of CBP’s Trade Remedy and Law Enforcement Division, said during the Dec. 16 meeting of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee. Hinojosa said she is “keeping my fingers crossed” that “hopefully in the next 30 days we might see it published.”

The proposal has spent a year of review at the Office of Management and Budget (see 1911220037). According to the OMB website, the proposal would “update, modernize and streamline the process for enforcing the prohibition in 19 U.S.C. 1307 against the importation of merchandise that has been mined, produced, or manufactured, wholly or in part, in any foreign country by convict or forced labor, or indentured labor under penal sanction.” There have been several rounds of back-and-forth between CBP and various other agencies, Hinojosa said, adding that she is “very optimistic” that the proposal is close to making it through the process.

CBP is also moving toward issuing regulations on low-value shipments, said John Leonard, CBP executive director-trade policy and programs, also speaking at the virtual COAC meeting. The agency has seen 160 million shipments through its Entry Type 86 and low-value shipment data pilots, and is working toward pulling together its lessons learned and issuing a proposed rule in 2021, he said.

Meanwhile, CBP’s regulatory approach to risk-based bonding is coming into better focus. CBP now hopes to issue an advance notice of proposed rulemaking before the end of 2020, said Lisa Gelsomino, industry lead on the COAC bonding working group. The agency then intends to pursue two separate rulemakings to implement risk-based bonding, one on single transaction bonds and the other on continuous bonds. For each, CBP will issue a proposed rule seeking comments for each type of bond before issuing final rules implementing the changes, which were required by Section 115 of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act.

The agency is also making progress on its global business identifier (GBI) initiative, which the agency intends to eventually replace the manufacturer ID. CBP in September set up a working group alongside its customs counterparts in the Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, Leonard said. It intends to “roll out the proof of concept” for the GBI “later in 2021,” Leonard said.