House Select Committee on China Republicans wrote to President Joe Biden, asking him to make human rights and military demands of Chinese President Xi Jinping when they meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which will happen Nov. 15-17.

The leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, at the end of the African Growth and Opportunity Act Forum, said improving AGOA should be of less importance than renewing the program ahead of September 2025. The program expires at the end of that month.

A recently introduced Senate bill that would impose an import pollution fee likely violates World Trade Organization rules, Simon Lester, former legal affairs officer at the WTO Appellate Body Secretariat, said in a blog post.

Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., introduced a bill that would require public disclosure of air cargo, truck and rail manifests, not just ocean shipments. Manifests usually include the name and address of the shipper, a cargo description, number of packages and gross weight, name of the carrier, port of exit, destination port and country destination.

The leaders of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China asked the CEO of Costco to give them "a detailed response to reports about Costco’s sale of seafood from Chinese companies that use forced labor to catch and process seafood for the U.S. market." In a letter made public on Nov. 1, CECC Chair Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Co-chair Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. noted that the committee recently held a hearing about forced labor in fish processing facilities in China. They asked Costco to describe what audits and risk assessments it has done to ensure that fish processed in China was not done with forced labor.

Thirteen senators -- seven Democrats and six Republicans -- urged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to schedule a vote within a few months so that the African Growth and Opportunity Act trade benefits program is renewed early. AGOA’s authorization expires in September 2025.

The Senate Finance Committee's top Republican, along with seven of his colleagues, accused Office of the U.S. Trade Representative officials of misleading congressional staff on what they would be negotiating on digital trade at the World Trade Organization. "As recently as this weekend, USTR officials told congressional staff that they had not abandoned support for negotiating the free data flow commitments at issue," Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and his colleagues wrote Oct. 26.

A bipartisan group of nine senators sent a letter to the commerce and energy secretaries and the U.S. trade representative opposing a potential critical minerals deal between the U.S. and Indonesia.

When the U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization said the U.S. was no longer arguing that data localization is a violation of trade rules, and is no longer pushing for open data flows, blowback in the U.S. was immediate, and not just from industry interests who want the right to protect source codes and want the ability to transfer data across borders freely.

The House Select Committee on China's leaders said a recent announcement that China would restrict exports of graphite, which is used in electric vehicle batteries, shows how urgent it is to pass legislation to respond to China's actions.