House Ways and Means ranking member Sandy Levin, D-Mich., will evaluate the state-of-play in Trans-Pacific Partnership talks firsthand at the upcoming TPP summit in Sydney, Australia, his office said. From Oct. 25-27, Levin will meet with TPP trade ministers and sit in on briefings, said an Oct. 21 statement. “There are many outstanding issues within the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and Congressman Levin wants to see their status firsthand," said a spokesman in the statement. Levin is a long-time critic of U.S. trade policy, and often pushes for more worker protections in U.S. trade agreements. He spelled out a range of demands for TPP in a report released in late September, including sweeping structural reform of Vietnamese labor rights (see 14091914). Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., along with Senate Finance ranking member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and former chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., introduced Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) in January, but Levin declined to endorse the bill (see 14091914). Passage of TPA is widely seen as necessary to pass TPP implementation legislation.

More than 400 ports, transportation services and industry organizations pushed Congress on Oct. 22 to provide harbor maintenance funding, administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in appropriations legislation that mirrors allocations in a water bill passed earlier this year. The Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) directs full use by 2025 of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) for maintenance and dredging, with annual increases in use over the next 10 years (see 14051612).

U.S. business and trade advocacy coalitions are digging in on their demand for Congress to immediately grant the Secretary of Agriculture the authority to rescind parts of the country-of-origin (COOL) labeling regime that the World Trade Organization says violates global trade rules. The WTO ruled on Oct. 20 the COOL regulations on meat muscle cuts favor U.S. industry and are inconsistent with cornerstone WTO agreements on tariffs and technical barriers on trade (see 1410200033). The U.S. will have 30 days to appeal the ruling, and if that does not happen, the WTO is afforded 60-90 days to adopt the Oct. 20 report, said industry group executives on an Oct. 20 conference call.

If the World Trade Organization rules against the U.S. in a high-profile country-of-origin labeling dispute, Canada and Mexico may be in the position to implement retaliations on U.S. industry before Congress can change the labeling regime to bring it into compliance with global trade rules, said leaders from the National Association of Manufacturing (NAM) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 14. Many analysts and industry representatives expect the WTO to side with Canada and Mexico, but the WTO has yet to go public with its decision (see 14100724). “The history is clear. Buyer supply chain needs result in export markets being lost even before retaliation is authorized,” said NAM Senior Vice President Aric Newhouse and the chamber’s executive vice president Bruce Josten. “More damaging, once export markets are lost, it takes years to regain the market.” The Agriculture Department may not be able to act unilaterally to reform the labeling regime, said the letter.

A leading congressional supporter of the Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank, along with a Republican colleague, unveiled a draft bill on Oct. 14 that would extend the charter of the credit agency through fiscal year 2019, while requiring the bank to put in place revenue-generating mechanisms to be self-sufficient. The draft (here) would implement a number of safeguards, including the appointment of an Ex-Im Chief Risk Officer. It would also require the Inspector General of the Bank to complete an independent audit of risk in the bank’s portfolio.

Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., prodded House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., on Oct. 9 to boost efforts to find a way to make the Highway Trust Fund solvent over the long-term. President Barack Obama signed into law legislation in early August that replenished the coffers of the fund through May 2015 (see 14081001). “The Highway Trust Fund is a problem that can be solved, and this Congress must uphold its responsibility to come up with a sustainable funding solution,” said Boxer in a letter. “We cannot afford to wait for action until the deadline which falls at the beginning of the critical summer construction season, or to kick the can down the road any longer.” Some lawmakers reject raising corporate taxes to make the fund solvent (see 14050625). Congressional revenue and infrastructure committees have jurisdiction over the fund.

Leadership on the Senate Appropriations Committee should block any attempt to scale back or eliminate country-of-origin labeling (COOL) through fiscal year 2015 funding bills, nearly one-third of the Senate said in a letter to Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and ranking member Richard Shelby, R-Ala. The World Trade Organization compliance panel report in the COOL dispute, which pits the U.S. against Canada and Mexico, is past due at this point, but the WTO process will probably continue into 2015, said the Oct. 6 letter, led by Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. and signed by 30 more lawmakers.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., floated draft legislation to overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act in September before leaving the Capitol for pre-election recess. Boxer is the chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The draft bill revises another draft released by committee ranking member Sen. David Vitter, R-La., in late July. House lawmakers in the early months of 2014 ramped up efforts to advance that chamber's version of the overhaul legislation, but Democrats on a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee threatened to obstruct movement on the House draft bill (see 14043003). The House draft would launch a review of the risk levels of chemicals in U.S. commerce, but would not make significant changes to import regulations.

Foreign countries may be using state credit agencies to launch “an export credit arms race” through loans that are below-market rates and possibly in violation of World Trade Organization subsidy rules, two senators said in a Sept. 29 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. The WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) put restrictions on export credits, and an Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development agreement also provided an exemption, but many countries are likely not acting in compliance with those stipulations, said the letter. Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said the U.S. should continue to negotiate the terms of legislation to clamp down on export credit agencies [ECAs]. The Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act of 2012 to reduce and ultimately eliminate state export credit (here). “While the negotiations proceed, it is important that the Office of the United States Trade Representative remain vigilant with respect to enforcement of the terms the SCM Agreement, including its safe harbor provisions, so as to prevent unfair market distortions,” said the letter. “We respectfully ask for an update on your investigative efforts and analysis as to whether foreign competitors are operating their ECAs in a manner consistent with their obligations under the SCM Agreement.” Export-Import Bank proponents say foreign credit agencies justify the continued need for the Ex-Im Bank, despite powerful opposition from Republicans.

The United Nations reached the 50 ratifications necessary to enter the Arms Trade Treaty into force, the UN said in recent days. Eight countries submitted their ratifications of the pact to the UN on Sept. 25. The U.S. is a signatory, but has not yet ratified the treaty and Republican opposition remains strong. On the same day the pact hit the 50 ratifications threshold, two U.S. senators criticized the “closed nature of the preparatory process” for a conference on the pact.