Jacob Kopnick

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer would like some help from the Senate to move the House toward ratifying the new NAFTA, he said while speaking at the Senate Republicans' lunch about prospects for ratification and the work he's doing to get a trade deal done with Japan. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Lighthizer told them to convince colleagues in the House to support it. "It was just cheerleading, 'rah, rah, sis boom bah,'" Kennedy complained. "I hope I'm wrong, but I don't understand why my colleagues think that Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi's going to agree to anything that will help the president. But I mean, I wish she would put the country first, but if you believe in watching what people do, not what they say, I'm not encouraged."

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson sidestepped questions at a Beijing news conference May 17 about media reports suggesting new U.S.-China trade talks are off the table for now. Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping “have maintained contact through various means,” the spokesperson said. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn’t comment. The U.S. and China “intend to continue further discussions,” a USTR notice in the Federal Register said, officially proposing the 25 percent Section 301 tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese goods not previously dutied. Requests to appear at public hearings on the proposed List 4 tariffs are due June 10 in docket USTR–2019–0004 at regulations.gov, and written comments are due June 17, the same day the hearings are set to begin. Post-hearing rebuttal comments are due seven days after the hearings end.

Smartphones are the largest of eight classifications of consumer technology products that would bear the biggest brunt of the 25 percent Section 301 tariffs proposed on $300 billion in imports not previously dutied during the U.S.-China trade war, according to the Consumer Technology Association’s top trade strategist. “The import values of the products that hit our members are massive,” emailed Vice President-International Trade Sage Chandler on May 14.

House members that are leaders on trade, in the center and on the left, say that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is recognizing the ways he's going to need to change the new NAFTA to get Democratic votes, but it's not yet clear how far he'll be willing or able to go. Wisconsin's Rep. Ron Kind, a New Democrat and free trader, said in a hallway interview with International Trade Today May 10, "We're kind of at an impasse. They keep telling us there's no way they can open this up and tweak it, and make this minor adjustment and we're saying ... we haven't met a trade agreement yet where members of Congress weren't allowed to get our fingerprints on it a little bit, massage it here and there for it to get to 218 [votes]. So, until somewhat blinks on that front ... ."

In a tweetstorm, President Donald Trump said trade talks with China are continuing in a "very congenial manner," but that there is "absolutely no need to rush" because with the tariff revenue, the U.S. can pay for infrastructure and health care, and purchase U.S. farm products that were once bought by China. He said those purchases would be shipped to "poor & starving countries in the form of humanitarian assistance. In the meantime we will continue to negotiate with China in the hopes that they do not again try to redo deal!"

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was told by the administration that no trade deal with China will be reached this week, potentially paving the way for President Donald Trump to increase tariffs by May 10. Pelosi, interviewed May 8 during a Washington Post Live webcast, said she was told by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on May 6 that China planned to “take a walk” from any agreement proposed this week. A rejected deal from China could result in increased tariffs on Chinese goods; the tariffs already are set to rise from 10 percent to 25 percent on May 10 (see 1905050001). When asked if she is confident there is any way a deal could get done this week, Pelosi said no. “Let me just say that, first of all, I never believed the Chinese were going to honor what they said they were going to do,” she said.

Since the NAFTA rewrite was completed, it's been "fascinating" to hear from the groups who have always opposed trade deals in the past, said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, the Democrat from Oregon who leads the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee. While he said that union leaders aren't comfortable with NAFTA 2.0, and they want changes to it, they "will kind of acknowledge they don't want to withdraw" from NAFTA, and say that "NAFTA 2.0 represents an improvement."

Washington state Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene, who is for free trade, told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that she's becoming increasingly concerned about his position on de minimis. "I was troubled to see that the report you sent to Congress identifying changes to U.S. law suggested that you would seek to amend the statute that sets the de minimis threshold in the United States," she wrote in a follow-up to his Ways and Means Committee appearance in February,. "Do you plan to include language in the draft [U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement] implementing legislation that would reduce the US de minimis threshold? If so, what specific changes will you seek?"

The White House said that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had productive meetings with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He. "The discussions remain focused toward making substantial progress on important structural issues and rebalancing the US-China trade relationship," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

The Miscellaneous Tariff Bill suspension on liquid crystal display (LCD) panel assemblies should be made permanent in order to reverse a "tariff inversion" that makes imported finished TVs cheaper than the LCD panels, Element Electronics said in comments to the International Trade Commission. Last year, the ITC sought comments on the MTB process and "domestic industry sectors or specific domestic industries that might benefit from permanent duty suspensions and reductions, either through a unilateral action of the United States or through negotiations for reciprocal tariff agreements, with a particular focus on inequities created by tariff inversions." The company said that while it "supports free and fair trade, the current US tariff structure is not fair and does not provide a level playing field for American workers."