As the expansion of automated systems promotes greater supply chain efficiencies, governments should consider facilitating activities like early goods release, economic mutual recognition agreements, and greater federal spending on U.S. transportation infrastructure, panelists said at Global Supply Chain Summit on May 18. While infrastructure “choke points” prevent supply chains from fully benefiting from recent advances in technology and e-commerce, funding provided through the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) should help CBP improve its Free and Secure Trade program (FAST program), National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Vice President Amy Magnus said.

AFL-CIO and five Colombian labor organizations on May 16 filed a formal petition with the Labor Department’s Office of Trade and Labor Affairs (OTLA) under the labor and dispute settlement chapters of the Colombia-U.S. Trade Promotion Agreement, claiming the Colombian Government has not complied with labor obligations under the agreement, according to the public filing (here). The petitioners requested a DOL investigation and that the U.S. invoke “Cooperative Labor Consultations” under Article 17.7 of the free trade agreement to ensure Bogota “takes all measures necessary” to amend its laws, regulations, and procedures to align with International Labor Organization fundamental labor rights and to address the “legal, institutional, and practical obstacles” to effective labor law enforcement and justice. If consultations don’t result in Colombia's compliance within a year of commencement, the U.S. should initiate a dispute settlement process, the petitioners said.

It's time for companies to "re-double their efforts to show the importance of renewing [the Generalized System of Preferences] before it expires again on December 31, 2017," said the Coalition for GSP in a blog post (here). As part of the effort, the group released reports on 2015 GSP-related imports, savings, and benefits for companies in all 50 states (here). Congress last renewed GSP in 2015 (see 1506250019), some two years after it expired.

CANCUN, Mexico -- Companies will increasingly limit supply chain relationships to suppliers that participate in Authorized Economic Operator programs, said industry members at the World Customs Organization AEO conference on May 11. For example, James Lockett, vice president, Head of Trade Facilitation at Huawei Technologies, said he expects AEO status to someday be a prerequisite for all Huawei suppliers. While it's still too early on to make that requirement, it seems to be where the company is headed, he said. That trend is already evident within CBP's Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program, said Martin Rojas, senior advisor for the Americas, International Road Transport Union. While C-TPAT benefits for truckers are somewhat limited -- allowing for manifest submissions a half hour ahead of border crossing rather than an hour -- many truckers participate because the clients require it, he said.

Ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd has created a verified gross mass (VGM) webpage (here) to receive and process VGMs starting in early June, the company said (here). Shippers can register to input VGMs via the Hapag-Lloyd Online Business website (here), shipper-to-carrier electronic data interchange, or portals such as INTTRA, GT Nexus, CargoSmart and DAKOSY, Hapag-Lloyd said. The company has also posted an info-graphic (here) summarizing how to obtain and send the VGM to the carrier.

The International Wood Products Association will lead due diligence training for members of the wood trade industry, the association said in a news release (here). "These due diligence tools reflect the legal requirements and the industry’s need for flexibility to adjust their corporate standards and procedures based on the particular specifications of their product, the country of origin and the complexity of their supply chain,” said Cindy Squires, IWPA executive director. The training includes day-long courses around the country, said IWPA. The new program follows "[Lumber Liquidators'] $13.5 million dollar settlement with the Department of Justice on Customs Law and Lacey Act violations" (see 1602020030), said the trade group.

The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America and the Confederacion de Asociaciones de Agentes Aduanales de la Republica Mexicana (CAAAREM) signed a "voluntary cooperation agreement to enhance" trade between the U.S. and Mexico on April 20. Geoff Powell, NCBFAA president, and Jose Antonio Vidales Flores, president of the Mexican brokers group, signed the agreement in Tucson during the NCBFAA annual conference. The agreement "establishes the scope of private sector activities between NCBFAA and CAAAREM" that will facilitate "trade practices, ensuring security and lawful practices in the supply chain and generating growth and prosperity," said the NCBFAA in a news release. Among the features of the agreement are a coordinated certification process, shared trade information, the ability to market to each other's members and the promotion of best practices, said the NCBFAA.

DHL Global Forwarding began using an internal customs brokerage management system designed to work with ACE, said DHL in a news release (here). "The IT system has been ACE-certified and is fully integrated with the company’s current Document Management System and Inland Transportation Management System, and it will also feed information to DHL’s future Unified Reporting System, as well as new Client Portal, to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2016," the company said. DHL worked with Kewill to create the system. “With all the Customs changes taking place in the U.S., we think this new system will be a big benefit to our customers, working flawlessly with ACE to provide them a more expedited service for all their Customs filings,” said Jim Miller, senior director for Customs Brokerage at DHL Global Forwarding. The system is also "equipped with the required Lacey Act programming, as well as functionality to interface with Participating Government Agencies," said DHL.

West Texas and Artesia, N.M. oil producers are calling on President Barack Obama to establish quotas on imported foreign oil, in part, to prevent further price and supply wars against the U.S. oil industry, according to a press release (here). “Since Thanksgiving of 2014, Saudi Arabia has increased its production to lower prices to shut-in unconventional oil in all areas of the US but specifically in Texas, Oklahoma and Appalachia where "stripper or marginal wells" are more prevalent,” the release says. “It is a price war which has suspended the prospect of American energy self-sufficiency.” Specifically, the industry group, known as the Panhandle Import Reduction Initiative, seeks to resuscitate the 1959 quota system under President Dwight Eisenhower, which limited heavy sour oil imports to 10 to 12 percent of annual U.S. oil demand. Oil prices and duration of price points as a result of Saudi oil flooding the U.S. market will eventually give way to higher price trends when demand exceeds supply, the coalition said.

The Footwear Distributors & Retailers of America expressed disappointment (here) that New Balance switched its position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership to oppose the deal, after the Pentagon allegedly pulled out of putting the company in the running for a “lucrative contract” to outfit military recruits if the company agreed to either support TPP or remain neutral, according to FDRA and a Boston Globe article (here). “We are disappointed at New Balance’s change of heart on this vitally important agreement for the entire U.S. footwear industry over a matter unrelated to TPP,” FDRA President Matt Priest said in a statement. “New Balance’s position is especially surprising as it is one of the companies that would see significant tariff reduction under the agreement.” Priest argued that TPP would save footwear consumers and companies $450 million the first year of implementation and $6 billion over the first decade, and vowed to continue FDRA’s push to lobby Congress about the deal’s expected benefits.