Lawmakers introduced the following trade-related bills since International Trade Today's last legislative update:

The U.S. must ensure Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiating parties modify their domestic laws and other policies to bring them into compliance with TPP commitments before a final agreement takes effect, said 18 House Democrats in a July 29 letter to President Barack Obama. “It is imperative that all of the TPP nations understand that the U.S. implementing legislation for the TPP will include the standard requirement that formal written notification to other TPP countries of U.S. completion of its legal requirements to implement the TPP be withheld until and unless our trade partners are in compliance with all of the TPP’s terms,” said the lawmakers, led by Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Collin Peterson, D-Minn. That stipulation caused a “years-old delay” in implementation of the Central America Free Trade Agreement following its ratification by all parties, said the letter (here). “Therefore, it is important for our TPP partners to be well apprised of this requirement in advance.” DeLauro and the other House Democrats also called on U.S. negotiators to certify no TPP partners are considered currency manipulators. All the TPP parties must bring their laws into compliance on labor, environment, telecommunications, corruption and human rights, the letter said.

The House overwhelmingly passed a three-month extension for highway and other infrastructure funding on July 29, hours before departing the Capitol for a five-week, August recess. The legislation, HR-3236 (here), is set for a Senate vote on July 30, and the measure will need 60 votes in favor, said a spokesman for Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas. The House previously passed and sent to the Senate a five-month extension. Senators will first vote on that chamber’s six-year infrastructure funding bill, which contains the Port Performance Act and reauthorization for the Export-Import Bank. House leadership in recent days vowed to head to recess without considering the long-term Senate legislation (see 1507280017). The highway and infrastructure funding due for the three-month extension is still scheduled to expire at midnight July 31.

The top two officials on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee urged the State Department on July 29 to provide a briefing on the “factual basis” of the Malaysian and Cuban upgrades in the agency’s 2015 trafficking report. The upgrades to Tier 2 on the trafficking scale has caused uproar among trade critics and human rights advocates (see 1507270031). Many lawmakers, particularly Democrats, have called the Malaysia decision politically-motivated (see 1507200004). That upgrade removes an obstacle to closing Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations with all 12 parties. The 2015 Trade Promotion Authority law, signed by President Barack Obama in late June, bars the U.S. from using expedited mechanisms in passing free trade agreements deals with Tier 3 countries. “We recognize that U.S. policy and engagement on trafficking does not exist in a vacuum, and we appreciate the many varied and nuanced trade-offs that are necessary between competing policy issues,” said Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and ranking member Ben Cardin, D-Md. (here). “We also believe that it is critical that the impartial reliability of the [Trafficking in Persons] Report be safeguarded and maintained if it is to have utility on this critical issue in the future.” Lawmakers had previously planned to include a provision in a final Customs Reauthorization bill to supersede the TPA language (see 1507070066).

Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, floated an amendment in recent days on the Senate’s six-year highway and transportation funding legislation to repeal country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for meat products. That measure is one of nearly 300 amendments filed on the legislation, HR-22. The Senate is set to vote to approve that underlying legislation on July 30, but COOL repeal likely won’t get a vote before then. In filing the amendment, Roberts said Congress must face the urgent need to stave off Canadian and Mexican retaliatory tariffs. "Whether you support or oppose COOL, the fact is retaliation is coming," said Roberts (here). “We can continue to discuss voluntary labeling programs similar to those already in the marketplace – once COOL is repealed.” Senate Agriculture ranking member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., introduced the voluntary alternative on July 23 (see 1507240019), the same day Roberts floated the amendment. Local U.S. agriculture producers and unions recently urged lawmakers to keep the complete COOL regime in place (see 1507280038). The U.S. contested Canadian damage claims in June, and the WTO adjudication process continues to unfold (see 1506190023).

House and Senate trade leaders have made “significant progress” over recent weeks on Customs Reauthorization negotiations, said House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., in a July 29 statement (here). “Work has taken place to resolve the differences between the two chambers’ bills,” said Ryan. “I expect this will allow us to move to a formal conference committee soon after Congress returns from this district work period.” Ryan’s comments echo those made by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at the outset of the week (see 1507280025). House lawmakers departed Capitol Hill on July 30 without formally launching legislative conference for Customs Reauthorization. The Senate did so in late June. Pre-conference negotiations have been underway to tackle the range of differences in the House and Senate bills, aides have said (see 1507160059). Lawmakers and trade associations, including the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, recently outlined respective priorities for the final legislation (see 1507290016 and 1507290023).

A voluntary country-of-origin food labeling law would receive scant support from U.S. industry and ultimately put consumers and U.S. agriculture producers at risk, said more than a hundred local food associations, unions and other advocacy groups on July 28. The organizations pushed Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., to keep the current COOL laws in place, despite the looming threat of World Trade Organization-sanctioned retaliation against U.S. exports.

A final Customs Reauthorization bill should include process reform for the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, said the American Apparel and Footwear Association in a recent letter to trade leaders on Capitol Hill (here). The Senate tacked MTB process reform onto its Customs Reauthorization legislation (see 1504230001), but it's unclear whether the House will support that language. Many lawmakers, largely Republicans, are concerned specific MTB tariff suspensions qualify as earmarks. MTB is one of many policy areas set for consideration in an upcoming legislative conference for customs (see 1507070066). AAFA President Juanita Duggan further pressed leaders of the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees to ensure customs conference includes corrections for tariff errors made in the preference package that passed in late June (see 1507210020). Duggan also called on lawmakers to remove a requirement that re-imported goods identify original manufacturers and to clarify that comingling rules for imports include goods “subject to minor alterations abroad.”

Lawmakers introduced the following trade-related bills since International Trade Today's last legislative update:

The Senate decisively passed a measure to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank in a July 27 vote. The reauthorization, which was tacked onto the highway bill as an amendment, received 64 votes in favor, while 29 Senators opposed. A test vote the day before paved the way for passage of the amendment (see 1507270023). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups applauded the Senate vote. "Ex-Im levels the global market for American exporters seeking crucial overseas support in their efforts to remain competitive with their foreign counterparts," said top official at the chamber, Bruce Josten, in a statement. “It is now time for the U.S. House of Representatives to take the final step toward reauthorization and eliminate risking hundreds of thousands of American jobs and the livelihood of our small- and medium-size businesses.” Speaking on the Senate floor on July 28, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called on lawmakers to pass the legislation before August recess. But House officials have repeatedly rejected the Senate’s highway bill, which would fund transportation projects over a six-year period. Republican leadership won’t take that legislation up for a vote before departing Capitol Hill on July 30, said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in a July 27 briefing with reporters. The Senate must pass the House’s short-term stopgap in order to avert a lapse in funding, said McCarthy.