THE VIGILANT VIGIL – 36th EDITION

Welcome, visitor, to the Vigil. Here you will find a summation of current global trade changes and regulatory updates. We aim to deliver helpful insights in a timely and relevant manner, to help you remain vigilant in an ever-evolving trade environment.

 

Vigil Viewpoint:

PURPLE IS THE NEW COMPLIANCE COLOR

Why Washington, Wall Street, and the Warehouse Could All Use a Little More Balance

Well, America voted. And judging by the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections, a rather substantial portion of the country decided it was time for a change of direction.

Democrats made significant gains across the country, capturing control of both the House and Senate, winning governorships, and delivering some particularly surprising results in traditionally Republican territory. Texas, of all places, elected a Democratic governor and sent James Talarico to the U.S. Senate. Apparently, even the political map has decided that some of its longstanding classifications might need to be reconsidered.

The cost of living was certainly among the issues weighing heavily on voters. Groceries, fuel, housing, healthcare, and the broader economic consequences of domestic and international policy have been placing enormous pressure on American families. The war in Iran, concerns about government accountability, and dissatisfaction with the country’s direction also contributed to an election that sent a fairly unmistakable message to Washington.

Now, before anyone starts composing an angry email accusing me of turning our trade compliance newsletter into a political manifesto, allow me to explain. I recognize that discussing politics in a professional publication can be rather like discussing religion at Thanksgiving dinner. Someone is inevitably going to be offended, and there’s a reasonable possibility that the cranberry sauce will become airborne. But I also believe we need to acknowledge something that has become increasingly difficult to ignore: TRADE IS POLITICAL.

It always has been to some degree, of course. But tariffs, sanctions, trade agreements, and export controls have increasingly become instruments of political negotiation, economic pressure, and international diplomacy. Their consequences don’t remain neatly contained within Washington. They reach our warehouses, production facilities, accounting departments, suppliers, customers, and ultimately the wallets of ordinary consumers.

So, yes, we’re going to talk a little politics this week. But I’m not particularly interested in celebrating one party’s victory over another. I’m much more interested in what happens next.

Winning an Election Isn’t the Same as Governing

One of the more interesting aspects of Tuesday’s results was the success of candidates who emphasized issues affecting everyday people rather than relying exclusively on traditional partisan divisions. James Talarico’s campaign in Texas, with its emphasis on reaching beyond the usual red-versus-blue arguments, offers an interesting example.

I rather like the idea of making things PURPLE.

Not because everyone should abandon their convictions, or because every political position deserves compromise. Some principles, particularly those involving fundamental rights and the rule of law, shouldn’t be casually negotiated away. But much of the practical work of governing requires people with different priorities to sit across a table, identify common objectives, and determine what each side is prepared to contribute or concede.

And here’s where I believe BOTH political parties have some serious work ahead of them.

Republicans need to consider why so many voters, including some who have supported them for years, were dissatisfied enough to demand change. Democrats, meanwhile, need to demonstrate that they have a coherent plan for addressing those concerns rather than simply offering an alternative to the current administration. Winning an election is an opportunity to govern, not a substitute for knowing how to do it.

Beginning in January, we could find ourselves with a Republican president and a Democratic-controlled Congress spending the next two years fighting, vetoing, investigating, and obstructing one another. Checks and balances are essential, but they aren’t intended to make productive government impossible. The objective should be accountability AND progress, not one at the expense of the other.

And while contemplating all of this, I couldn’t help noticing how closely it resembles something I’ve encountered repeatedly throughout my career in global trade compliance.

When Compliance Becomes the Opposition Party

I’ve worked with organizations where the compliance department seemed to believe its primary responsibility was to stop absolutely everything until someone could prove, beyond any conceivable doubt, that a transaction was permissible. Every shipment required manual intervention. Every supplier needed another questionnaire. Every customer was subjected to additional scrutiny, regardless of the actual risk.

Recently, I met with a company that wanted to BLOCK every single international shipment so someone could manually review the transaction, ask dozens of questions, and collect additional certificates and end-user statements, even when the shipment involved ordinary capital equipment moving between the company’s own facilities.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. Some transactions absolutely deserve that level of attention, and certain regulatory requirements leave little room for discretion. But should a routine, well-documented shipment to a familiar, low-risk affiliate automatically receive the same treatment as sensitive technology being exported to a new intermediary in a high-risk jurisdiction?

Of course not.

When compliance becomes so rigid that legitimate business can barely function, Operations starts looking for ways around the process. Sales becomes reluctant to share information. Procurement decides that asking Compliance will only delay an order, so perhaps it’s better not to ask at all. Before long, the organization has developed the corporate equivalent of a political opposition movement.

And that’s when the REAL risks begin.

The objective isn’t to make every transaction difficult. It’s to make every transaction appropriately controlled. Compliance should never encourage people to circumvent the very safeguards intended to protect the organization.

When Finance and Compliance Forget They’re on the Same Team

Of course, the problem isn’t always an overly restrictive compliance department. Sometimes other functions decide to govern without consulting the people who understand the regulations.

I recently encountered a situation where a company’s finance team increased its projected tariff expense to approximately 50% across its business without adequately coordinating the assumptions with its trade compliance specialists. By year-end, the actual overall duty burden was closer to 25%.

You might think everyone would be delighted to discover that the company had incurred considerably less tariff expense than anticipated. Unfortunately, the inaccurate forecast had influenced other financial and operational decisions, and the resulting confusion produced considerable frustration among leadership.

Finance questioned whether Compliance had calculated or paid duties correctly. Compliance questioned why Finance had developed its projections without consulting the trade experts. Management was left wondering how two departments within the same organization had arrived at such dramatically different expectations.

Sound familiar, Washington?

The lesson wasn’t that Finance should surrender its forecasting responsibilities to Compliance, or that Compliance should dictate corporate financial strategy. It was that neither department had the complete picture on its own.

Sales needs to sell. Procurement needs to source. Logistics needs to move merchandise. Finance needs to forecast and manage expenses. And Compliance needs to ensure the organization meets its legal obligations. These aren’t competing political parties, although some corporate meetings might suggest otherwise.

Compliance must be nonnegotiable where the law is concerned, but the method of achieving compliance often leaves considerable room for creativity, collaboration, and improvement.

And Now We Have Artificial Intelligence at the Table

As if balancing the interests of Sales, Finance, Operations, Legal, and Compliance weren’t challenging enough, we’ve invited another participant into the discussion: Artificial Intelligence, or Super Intelligence, as it has recently been described in federal government communications.

This week’s Trade Buzz explores the increasingly important role of intelligent automation in global trade compliance, including the opportunities and responsibilities associated with CBP’s recent guidance on automated customs activities.

And once again, I find myself returning to the same word: BALANCE.

Organizations that refuse to explore AI-enabled technology risk falling behind competitors using these tools to improve data quality, identify anomalies, automate routine processes, and make better-informed decisions. There are tremendous opportunities to improve compliance programs, and I believe we should embrace them.

But giving an automated system unrestricted authority to interpret complex regulations, make consequential determinations, and process transactions without appropriate oversight is not responsible innovation.

AI can produce extraordinary results. It can also produce extraordinary nonsense, sometimes with such confidence that I almost admire its audacity.

The answer isn’t to reject the technology or blindly surrender our responsibilities to it. It’s to establish appropriate controls, validate outputs, document decisions, and ensure qualified professionals remain accountable.

Personally, I prefer a human in the lead, not merely a human somewhere in the loop. Let technology perform the tasks it does well, support the decisions it can help inform, and identify matters requiring additional scrutiny. But don’t confuse automation with accountability.

Maybe Purple Really Is the Answer

As we move toward the new year, I hope our elected officials will spend less time planning how to defeat one another and more time determining how to address the concerns that brought voters to the polls. Republicans and Democrats don’t need to abandon their principles, but they do need to recognize that compromise, cooperation, and effective governance aren’t signs of weakness.

I’d encourage business leaders to approach their compliance programs with the same philosophy.

Bring Sales, Procurement, Logistics, Finance, Operations, Legal, and Compliance together. Identify the risks that genuinely matter. Establish controls that reflect the products, destinations, customers, end uses, and regulatory requirements involved. Use technology intelligently, involve qualified professionals, and measure the effectiveness of the program rather than simply counting how many transactions were blocked or forms were completed.

A company shipping ordinary, low-risk merchandise to established subsidiaries doesn’t necessarily need the same compliance infrastructure as a company exporting highly controlled technology through complex distribution channels into sensitive markets. The legal requirements must be satisfied in either case, but the controls and resources should reflect the actual risks.

Red unchecked can be a mess. Blue unchecked can be a mess. Sales unchecked can be a mess. Compliance unchecked can be a mess. AI unchecked can be a particularly FAST mess.

The answer isn’t to eliminate our differences. It’s to make those differences work together toward a common purpose.

Perhaps that’s the real lesson of Tuesday’s election. The American people have spoken, but the difficult work begins when the campaign signs come down. The same is true of a compliance program: approving the policy is the easy part. Making it work across an entire organization requires cooperation, accountability, and a willingness to adjust.

So here’s to a little more PURPLE in Washington, a little more collaboration in our businesses, and a little more intelligence, both artificial and otherwise, in our compliance programs.

And if we can accomplish all of that without turning every congressional hearing or compliance meeting into a televised shouting match, I might even consider it genuine progress.

Let’s veer into this week’s Vigil, shall we?

 

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In this volume, we will explore:

• CSMS updates
• Updates to the Federal Registry, for both policy and product
• Cooperative call outs to other blogs
• Where to find us
• Be sure to check out our weekly edition of Trade Buzz

 

Let’s veer into it, shall we?

 

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The following contains links and citations from multiple US government agencies and other credible sources. Vigilant GTS LLC is not the source material but simply compilating the information.

 

CSMS Updates

**The following are short summaries of the actual information provided by CSMS. To stay up to date with announcements and news, please subscribe at: https://www.cbp.gov/webform/subscribe-receive-cbp-access-updates **

 

CSMS # 70370373 – Information: Quota Bulletin 26-408 2027 Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act

Commodity:  Apparel articles under subheading 9820.11.09 and imports of t-shirts under subheading 9820.11.12 as provided in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule…

CSMS # 70370373 – Information: Quota Bulletin 26-408 2027 Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act

 

CSMS # 70373554 – Broker Continuing Education and Triennial Status Reports Due Soon!

CBP is reminding licensed custom brokers of two important deadlines, both of which are required to maintain the broker’s license:

– January 31, 2027 – All individually licensed brokers must complete their customs broker Continuing Education (CE) requirements. CE for this Triennial Status Reporting (TSR) period cannot be completed after January 31, 2027.

CSMS # 70373554 – Broker Continuing Education and Triennial Status Reports Due Soon!

 

CSMS # 70362316 – ACE Portal Application Updated to Include Account Merger Requests

On November 5, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection updated the Automated Commercial Environment Secure Data Portal (ACE Portal) account application to facilitate merger requests for two or more ACE Portal accounts under a single top account. Going forward, if one or more entities need to merge ACE Portal accounts, the account owner for the acquiring entity’s account should use the automated ACE Portal application to request the merger.

CSMS # 70362316 – ACE Portal Application Updated to Include Account Merger Requests

 

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Federal Register Updates

These are just a sampling of the many updates and changes made by the Federal Register. For a more comprehensive list, or to subscribe to the updates yourself, follow the link below, and never miss a thing.

https://www.federalregister.gov

 

Proclamations

Motor Vehicles; Further Modification of Scope of Canadian Products Subject to Additional Duties Imposed To Offset Canadian Discrimination Against U.S. Commerce (Proc. 11076)

FR Document: 2026-22292 Citation: 91 FR 68861

PDF Pages 68861-68871 (11 pages) Permalink

Abstract: Except as otherwise provided in this proclamation, certain products of Canada, as set forth in Annex I, Part A to this proclamation, imported into the United States shall no longer be subject to the additional ad valorem duty of 50 percent imposed pursuant to Proclamation 11048, as amended. In addition, certain products of Canada, as set forth in Annex I, Part B to this proclamation, imported into the United States shall be subject to the additional ad valorem duty of 50 percent imposed pursuant to Proclamation 11048, as amended. The duties imposed pursuant to Proclamation 11048, as amended, and as modified in this proclamation, shall apply in addition to duties imposed pursuant to section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended (19 U.S.C. 1862). These changes shall be effective with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern time on October 30, 2026.

 

 

Panel Decision:

North American Free Trade Agreement; Certain Softwood Lumber Products from Canada

FR Document: 2026-22431 Citation: 91 FR 69242

PDF Pages 69242-69243 (2 pages) Permalink

Abstract: On October 19, 2026, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Secretariat issued a Notice of Final Panel Action. The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) is notifying the public that the NAFTA Binational Panel’s final judgment is not in harmony with Commerce’s final determination in the countervailing duty (CVD) investigation of certain softwood lumber products (lumber) from Canada, and that Commerce is amending the final determination and the resulting CVD order with respect to the…

 

 

Antidumping or Countervailing Duty Investigations, Orders, or Reviews

FR Document: 2026-22629 Citation: 91 FR 69796	PDF Pages 69796-69808 (13 pages) Permalink
Abstract: The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) has received requests to conduct administrative reviews of various antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders with September anniversary dates. In accordance with Commerce’s regulations, we are initiating those administrative reviews.

 

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News from other esteemed sources:

 

BAKER/MCKENZIE

 

2026 US Midterm Election Results: How Will Democratic Control of Both Chambers Impact Trade Issues

The results from the midterm elections have changed the political landscape of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. While some individual races remain to be called, the power shift in Congress has been confirmed: Democrats will take control…
Read more…

 

 

UK Introduces New Regulations on Global Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Sanctions 10/29/2026On 15 October 2026, the UK introduced an expanded human rights sanctions regime, via the UK’s new Global Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Sanctions Regulations 2026 (the “2026 Regulations”). The 2026 Regulations revoke and… Read more…

 

 

China Steps Up Export Control Enforcement with New Investigation Measures
11/02/2026

On October 30 China’s Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”) issued on draft Measures on Dual-use Items Export Control Investigation and Enforcement (the “Draft”), soliciting public comments until November 29, 2026. For the first time, the…
Read more…

 

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Vigilant Visitation Opportunities

We will be out and about at different trade and compliance related conferences around the country! We would love for you to come to say hello, so we can get to know you better! You can also connect with us at: https://vigilantgts.com/ or through our socials, on Facebook and LinkedIn!

 

Where we will be:

 

ICPA Annual Spring Conference, March 7 – March 10, 2027

Orlando, Florida, USA

This will be the 25^th Anniversary Event for ICPA.

Jamie Adams will be presenting on “Networking for Career Development” and leading the Voices of Compliance Choir in multiple performances.

 

ICPA Global Trade Insights Conference, April 7 – April 8, 2027

Wembley, England

Jamie Adams will be presenting and also leading the choir.

 

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TRADE BUZZ – Powered by Vigilant GTS

 

Trade never stands still—and neither do we.

Every Tuesday, we publish a new Trade Buzz episode highlighting timely developments in customs, tariffs, export controls, sanctions, compliance, and global trade. Our goal is simple: provide practical, easy-to-understand insights that help you stay informed and prepared.

This week’s topic: Artificial Intelligence and smarter automation are transforming global trade compliance, but technology alone does not guarantee compliance. As CBP addresses the growing use of AI and automated systems, the importance of reasonable care, accurate data, human oversight, and documented decisions remains essential. Effective automation requires risk-based controls, regular testing, and the ability to explain and defend system-generated results. It’s about leveraging technology to improve efficiency, identify risks, and strengthen compliance programs without sacrificing accountability or professional judgment.

🎥 Watch the latest episode:

https://vigilantgts.com/stronger-compliance-through-smarter-automation-hb/

 

Missed a previous episode? Browse the complete Trade Buzz library at:
https://vigilantgts.com/blog/