International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
An administration Council on Supply Chain Resilience, which includes the head of every Cabinet-level agency except the Education Department, held its first meeting, with the goal of maintaining resilient supply chains.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
Customs and trade lawyer Adrienne Braumiller, founder of the Braumiller Law Group in Texas, said she expects forced labor detentions to increase as a result of the hiring of Laura Murphy to advise Robert Silvers, the DHS's undersecretary for strategy, policy and plans.
A spotlight on Uyghur forced labor in auto parts manufacturing that began a year ago (see 2212060054) has not yet resulted in much action from CBP (see 2309210025), but forced labor researchers say that may not continue to be the case.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet Dec. 13 remotely and in Washington, D.C., CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by Dec. 8.
The White House said it will ask the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to "pursue effective and meaningful remediation of labor rights violations or to address gaps in labor rights protections," and asked USTR and the Department of Labor to develop new tools and strategies to address these gaps.
The Commerce-led pillars of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework -- tax and anti-corruption, climate and supply chain -- are all completed or all-but-completed, but the U.S. chose not to talk about which parts of the trade pillar have reached agreement during a round of IPEF negotiations in San Francisco. The administration also is making no projections about when the trade pillar, led by the U.S. trade representative, might be completed.
Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act detention notices will be available in the ACE certification environment on Nov. 15, CBP said in a CSMS message. CBP had delayed deployment of the automated UFLPA detention process until January in August (see 2308300043). The enhancement is designed to give importers the "ability to view, search, and respond to CBP Form 6051D using the ACE Forms application accessible through the ACE Secure Data Portal,” CBP said (see 2304210072).
The Senate Finance Committee chairman, joined by four Republicans and three other Democrats, asked the head of CBP to prioritize Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement and USMCA textile enforcement in the coming year, saying that American textile mills that are closing have said a key factor in weak demand for their yarns or fabric is "lack of effective customs enforcement."