New Balance CEO Rob DeMartini floated a 100 percent American-made footwear prototype on Sept. 3 that he says fits the criteria for Department of Defense military recruit purchases. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, has repeatedly pushed DoD to comply fully with the Berry Amendment, a law that prohibits DoD funding to obtain products made outside the U.S. (see 14081819). DoD is scheduled to meet on Sept. 4 with domestic athletic manufacturers to discuss footwear purchases. “We’ve been working for over five years to build a product, made in America, that would meet all the needs of American servicemen and women,” said DeMartini on Fox News, adding that the shoe is technologically competitive with the most expensive running shoes on the global market. “Every part, every component, every piece of this shoe is made and sourced from supplies in the United States.” New Balance does not want an “earmark” or “specific contract,” and will market the prototype’s inputs to other U.S. manufacturers, said DeMartini.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is adding several species to the Endangered Species List, in two separate final rules. One final rule (here) implements the findings of the National Marine Fisheries Service by listing five species of sturgeon (effective July 2), four populations of scalloped hammerhead shark (effective Sept. 2), and certain Chinook salmon from the Columbia River (effective Aug. 11). Another lists the Florida brickell-bush and Carter’s small-flowered flax, two species of plants from South Florida, as endangered, effective Oct. 6 (here).

Nearly 90 percent of U.S. companies operating in Southeast Asia anticipate increased trade and investment flows over the coming five years, said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore in a late August report, citing survey findings. Respondents said customs deficiencies, corruption, insufficient transparency and poor infrastructure remain concerns, however. Trans-Pacific Partnership participants in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are poised to reap the largest benefits of increased trade in the future, said the chamber report. The trade pact continues to face challenges associated with a lack of consensus in many outstanding areas, but President Barack Obama has targeted the coming months to strike agreement (see 14081105). Thirty-one percent of those company executives surveyed run manufacturing companies, and an additional 14 percent are involved in non-services related industries, the chamber said. Indonesia and Vietnam were rated as the top ASEAN countries for U.S. company trade and investment expansion, said the report.

Some members of U.S. industry across the manufacturing and agricultural spectrum support a change in the country-of-origin labeling regime for foreign meat products and livestock that would to bring the law into compliance with global trade rules, rather than a flat repeal of the regulations, said industry representatives in recent interviews. A Wall Street Journal report published on Aug. 21 claimed the World Trade Organization is poised to allow Canada and Mexico to move closer to retaliation in response to the COOL regulations, but the WTO panel report will not be made public until the end of September at the earliest (see 14082621).

The Drug Enforcement Administration placed the insomnia drug suvorexant into Schedule IV of the Controlled Substances Act. The Food and Drug Administration recently approved the drug on Aug. 13, said DEA. Effective Sept. 29, suvorexant will be subject to new registration, labeling, recordkeeping, and import and export requirements.

The International Trade Commission on Aug. 21 began the process for implementing changes to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule to reflect the new version of the World Customs Organization’s Harmonized System that takes effect in 2017. The WCO announced the amendments to its international tariff schedule in July (see 14073002 and 14073101). Beyond the WCO-recommended changes, the ITC will also consider (1) whether to delete a duplicate subheading for taro in HTS Chapter 7; and (2) a change to the current classification for corned beef so that it is classified with other cured meats, it said in a Federal Register notice (here). The ITC will issue recommended changes to the HTS in December, and will ask for public comments at that time. The ITC’s final report is due in July 2015.

The Drug Enforcement Agency is finalizing 2015 quotas for the manufacture and import of controlled substances Schedule I and II of the Controlled Substances Act. Substances not listed in the table included in DEA's final rule will have a quota of zero. DEA is also setting quotas for the Schedule I chemicals ephedrine, phenylpropanolamine, and pseudoephedrine.

The Drug Enforcement Administration moved hydrocodone combination products (HCPs) into Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act from Schedule III. A DEA review found HCPs are "abused at high rates and have high dependence potential," it said.

Thirty retail industry, human rights and other advocacy organizations urged Obama administration officials in an Aug. 12 letter to ratchet up pressure to eliminate forced labor in the Uzbekistani cotton sector. The Uzbekistan government is poised to once again “coercively mobilize more than a million of their own citizens to pick cotton,” in the coming weeks as harvest season in the country begins, said the organizations, including the National Retail Federation and the American Apparel and Footwear Association. The administration officials should specifically pressure Uzbekistan to do the following:

Lawmakers should expand the third country fabric provision in the African Growth and Opportunity Act to all beneficiaries of the preference program as part of AGOA renewal legislation, said six prominent textile and apparel organizations in an Aug. 13 statement that firmly urged renewal by the end of 2014. The preference program expires on Sept. 30, 2015, but stakeholders say early renewal is necessary to keep existing supply chains in place (see 14040402). The third country fabric provision, which allows lesser developed countries to source fabrics from any country globally and still export products duty-free, should also be extended for the “full duration” of AGOA renewal. “In 2012, 30,000 jobs were eliminated in Africa because Congress waited until the last minute to renew the AGOA third country fabric rule of origin,” said the organizations. “That number is sure to grow because many more jobs -- both in Africa and the U.S. -- are now at stake.” The statement urged Congress to pass a 15-year AGOA renewal bill.