U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) continues to make progress in implementing the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (TFTEA) on the Act’s two-year anniversary. TFTEA, the first comprehensive authorization of CBP since the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2003, reshapes, strengthens and modernizes how CBP accomplishes its trade mission. The Act supports CBP’s continuing efforts to ensure a fair and competitive trade environment for American businesses and the American people.
“Since its enactment two years ago, implementing the provisions of TFTEA has been a top priority for CBP,” said Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan. “CBP has made significant progress in our efforts to protect American consumers and businesses from fraudulent trade activities while ensuring the swift flow of legitimate, fair, and safe imports entering the U.S. stream of commerce.”
With its additional TFTEA authorities, CBP continues to investigate unfair trade practices. Title IV, Section 421, commonly referred to as the Enforce and Protect Act of 2015, or EAPA, established formal procedures for the investigation of antidumping or countervailing duty evasion allegations against U.S. importers. Since August 2017, when EAPA came into force, CBP has initiated 16 investigations, preventing the evasion of more than $45 million in antidumping and countervailing duties annually.
CBP has used the additional authorities provided under TFTEA to prohibit the entry of goods made by forced labor, including forced child labor, into the United States and also established a Forced Labor Division within the Office of Trade. CBP seized more than 10,000 cartons of frozen squid, valued at more than $200,000, in November 2017 that was processed with North Korean forced labor. To date, CBP, in collaboration with its interagency partners, including the Department of Labor, which compiles lists of goods that are likely produced by forced labor, has detained 57 shipments of goods, valued at $6.3 million, that are suspected of involving forced labor.
