China’s recently announced export restrictions on antimony (see 2408150022) are expected to cause supplies of the critical mineral to tighten and prices to rise sharply, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said Aug. 20.

The U.S. Navy is trying to help commercial cargo ships maintain the alternative trade routes companies have found as the U.S. works to end Houthi attacks on ships transiting the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, Vice Admiral George Wikoff said. And although the U.S. has used sanctions to target several Iran-backed networks helping to supply the Houthis, he said the U.S.-designated terror group is increasingly diversifying its suppliers and is becoming a legitimate technology exporter.

An apparel factory owner and a trade policy professional from the apparel industry said it's critical to renew Haitian trade preferences this year, even though they don't expire for 14 months.

Almost 20 trade groups and a handful of companies disagreed on how to ensure supply chain resilience -- many arguing that liberalizing trade with allies is crucial to reduce the likelihood of shortages, or weaponization, but others asserted that friendshoring will undermine domestic production already under stress.

Barely more than half of the pharmaceuticals' value consumed in the U.S. is domestically produced, but re-shoring is not the answer to vulnerabilities in the supply chains for drugs or medical equipment, panelists said at a think tank event.

While the U.S. should look to counter China with export controls, tariffs and outbound investment restrictions, it also needs to better incentivize trading partners to diversify their supply chains away from China, the Atlantic Council said this week.

Perkins Coie partner Michael House told an audience of automotive supply chain professionals that this fiscal year has seen not only a sharp increase in the number of detentions, "but even more important, in our view, is the scope of products being detained has diversified, and there's been a steady increase in detentions of merchandise that were outside those original so-called priority sectors."

A new bill from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's top Republican and a Democratic member would renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act trade preference program for 16 years, offer more flexibility on country eligibility reviews, and soften the high-income graduation rules.

DHS announced that more companies in what it called "the high-priority textile sector" should be added to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act's Entity List, joining the 10 already on that list -- just one item in what it's calling "a new comprehensive enforcement action plan" for textiles.

A bipartisan bill has been introduced that would set country-by-country de minimis levels, instruct the administration to reconsider U.S. tariffs "with the focus on the principle of reciprocity" for most favored nation rates, and open a dialogue with Mexico and Canada on allowing Costa Rica and Uruguay to join USMCA.