Government officials from Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Indonesia, Vietnam and India, along with a lawyer speaking on behalf of Egypt, said their countries shouldn't face tariffs because the U.S. alleges they are not keeping forced labor out of supply chains.
Panelists during an interagency's Section 301 review hearing asked industry witnesses for data about how prices are affected by efforts to source from companies determined to be free of forced labor.
Altana, which has a multi-year contract with CBP to map supply chains that the agency can use to address forced labor, says that $86 billion worth of goods with supply chain exposure to forced labor was exported to North America in 2024 and 2025, with more than 80% of it headed directly to the U.S.
Trade groups representing a wide swath of businesses accused the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative of using Section 301 to reverse-engineer the global tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of April 6-12:
A former career economics researcher in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and a former deputy director of the National Economic Council in the first Trump term agree that two recently announced Section 301 investigations are likely aimed at replicating previously imposed reciprocal tariff rates, whether those were 10%, 15% or 20%.
Camel Energy’s imports aren't subject to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and its merchandise wasn’t manufactured in Xinjiang, CBP said in a stipulated judgment filed with the Court of International Trade on March 31 (Camel Energy v. United States, CIT # 25-00420).
The trade community should expect a renewed focus on enforcement in criminal investigations and penalties relating to forced labor, according to ArentFox Schiff’s 2026 Guide for Global Business. Recent U.S. government announcements signaled it will “adopt a more aggressive enforcement posture” in this area of concern.
CBP has added new filtering options as it revamps its dashboard that tracks shipments suspected of violating the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, according to a Jan. 28 cargo systems message. These updates include the ability to sort data by shipment counts and by commodity under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule at the 4-digit heading level classification.
CBP has published a quick reference guide on submitting withhold release order and finding modification requests to the revamped forced labor portal.