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.

China said it will curb exports of precursor chemicals that make fentanyl and other synthetic opiates, after a previous crackdown on fentanyl trafficking led to the chemicals being sent to Mexico, where cartels turn them into opiates.

Indonesia and the U.S. pledged together to take concrete steps to advance "occupational safety and health and fair wages and ensure employers uphold internationally recognized labor standards and comply with domestic labor law" in Indonesia's mines and processing facilities, as well as work to lower greenhouse gas emissions in their mineral supply chains, "including efforts to seek to promote clean and low-emission power for mineral processing."

President Joe Biden isn’t planning to bring up issues surrounding Section 301 tariffs in a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California on Nov. 15, a senior administration official said during a call with reporters last week. The official said the “question of economic and trade relationship” will be discussed, but the two leaders likely won’t delve into specifics.

The U.S. already has free trade agreements with most of the dozen countries in the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP), however, the nations want to strengthen regional economic integration.

President Joe Biden issued a statement asking Congress "to reauthorize AGOA in a timely fashion and to modernize this important Act for the economic opportunities of the coming decade."

Mauritania will participate in the African Growth and Opportunity Act program and receive benefits next year, since it has made progress in ending hereditary slavery, but Ethiopia, which was expelled from participation due to human rights violations during a rebel uprising, won't be allowed back in.

After a meeting between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President Joe Biden, the two sides publicly acknowledged they wouldn't meet their Oct. 31 deadline to complete a Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum, which is meant to keep out non-market overcapacity from the two markets, as well as privilege trade in green metals between them.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel will visit the White House Oct. 20 to discuss EU-U.S. efforts "to accelerate the global clean energy economy based on secure, resilient supply chains, and will continue cooperation in critical and emerging technologies, including digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence," according to a joint statement Sept. 28. The EU and the U.S. have set Oct. 31 as a deadline to reach an agreement on trade in green steel and in keeping unfairly traded steel out of their markets (see 2307140062). The EU expects that deal to drop the tariff rate quotas on EU steel exports to the U.S. The leaders also will talk about supporting Ukraine.

Vice President Kamala Harris talked about critical minerals with Indonesia's president and resilient supply chains with him and the president of the Philippines and prime minister of Japan during meetings in Jakarta this week on the sidelines of the biannual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN Summit.