Customs Corner
Trade and Customs Updates
FDA Updates Guidance on Registration and Listing of Cosmetic Facilities/Products
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking comments on its newly developed draft electronic submission portal (Cosmetics Direct) and paper forms (Forms FDA 5066 and 5067).
Cosmetics Direct is an internet-based portal the takes the required registration and listing submission information from the paper forms and incorporates it into an electronic format. This will enable the Cosmetics manufacturer to organize their registration and listing submission to include the information needed for FDA and will give them access to their previous Cosmetic Direct registrations and listing submissions.
The FDA strongly encourages electronic submissions to facilitate efficiency and timeliness of data submission and management for the agency. Respondents that prefer to submit paper registrations and listings will still have the option to do so.
Draft screenshots of the electronic system are available in the links below for review and comments.
Additional Information
UAW Begins a Strike
On 15 Sep 2023, the United Auto Workers (UAW) began a strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis targeting one US assembly plant at each automaker. The United Auto Workers union is stepping up pressure on Detroit’s Big Three by threatening to expand its strike unless it sees major progress in contract negotiations by this Friday, 22 Sep.
The Biden administration reversed a plan to send acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior adviser Gene Sperling to Detroit this week to meet with both sides, according to a White House official. However, as the strike lingers on, layoffs are starting to occur at other locations as the strike crimps the industry’s supply chain.
The UAW is asking automakers for a 36% pay increase across a four-year contract. For now, however, the sides remain far apart on a wage hike. The UAW also wants the Big Three to reinstate annual cost of living adjustments (COLA), arguing that inflation is eroding worker paychecks. When GM and Chrysler went bankrupt following the 2008 financial crisis, the Detroit automakers stopped offering COLAs.
The UAW also wants the Big Three to scrap its two-tiered wage structure. Under that system, top-tier workers — meaning anyone who joined the company in 2007 or earlier — earn an average of roughly $33 an hour. But those hired after 2007 are classified as lower tier and earn far less — up to about $17 an hour.
UAW workers who were hired after 2007 do not receive defined benefit pensions. For years, the union gave up general pay raises and lost cost-of-living wage increases to help the companies control costs.
Along with substantial pay raises, more paid time off and pension benefits, one of the changes UAW leaders have been bargaining for is a four-day workweek, working 32 hours for 40 hours of pay, and more time off “to spend with family,” according to the UAW.
Additionally, the union is also asking for the right to strike over plant closings. The union is also seeking health care for all retired UAW members. Workers hired before 2007 still have those benefits. But those hired since – a majority of hourly workers – do not. And finally, the union is demanding that the automakers limit their use temporary workers, who under the tiered-wage system receive the least pay and no benefits.
