The U.S. government, including Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has recently put an emphasis on preventing forced labor in global supply chains. For instance, On March 11, 2020, the House Rules Committee introduced a new bill that would create a rebuttable presumption regarding forced labor in Xinjiang, China.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a free trade area, outlined in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement among 54 of the 55 African Union nations. The free-trade area is the largest in the world in terms of participating countries since the formation of the World Trade Organization. Nigeria and Benin were the hold outs until July of 2019.
On Jan. 1, 2020 the Japan-United States Free Trade Agreement went into effect. The agreement provides duty-free, or reduced duty treatment, for certain Japanese imports into the U.S. and certain U.S. exports to Japan. The implementation details were printed in the Federal Register on Dec. 30, 2019 (84 FR 72187).
Incoterms are rules issued by the International Chamber of Commerce that facilitate global trade and are updated every ten years or so in an effort to keep up with the changes that take place in international trade. The current version is Incoterms 2010, but a new version, Incoterms 2020, is expected to be released in the last quarter of 2019 and will take effect on January 1, 2020.
The Court of International Trade (CIT) is slated for its first jury trial in 20 years. The case? U.S. v. Univar USA Inc. What’s so special about it? On March 26, 2019, Judge Barnett of the Court of International Trade ruled that a jury can, indeed, rule on the ultimate question of 19 U.S.C. § 1592 (Penalties for Fraud, Gross Negligence or Negligence) liability, but the jury cannot rule on the amount of civil penalties stemming from § 1592 liability.
