Recent trade-related bills introduced in Congress include:
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., will hold a markup on March 5 to consider filling vacancies among the Congressional Trade Advisors on Trade Policy and Negotiations, according to a committee release.
The Maritime Goods Movement Act for the 21st Century, introduced in the House on Feb. 27, would replace the Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT) with the Maritime Goods Movement User Fee in order to discourage shippers from bypassing American ports and transshipping goods through Canada and Mexico, said sponsor Jim McDermott, D-Wash. The Maritime Goods Movement Act for the 21st Century, H.R. 4105 (here), is the sister legislation to a bill introduced by Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., in September (here). The legislation boosts funding for port infrastructure development by guaranteeing that the fee revenue is spent on port upkeep, say sponsors in both chambers. Less than half of the HMT revenue is currently spent on port maintenance and improvement, say the sponsors.
The House Privacy Working Group will discuss the EU-U.S. free trade agreements March 5 with an academic and two industry representatives, said a spokesman for Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. They are: Jake Colvin, vice president-global trade issues for the trade association National Foreign Trade Council; Justin Weiss, Yahoo senior director-international privacy and policy; and Georgetown Law professor Laura Donohue, who focuses on national security. Blackburn, who co-chairs the working group with Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., has expressed serial skepticism of enhancing Federal Trade Commission authority over domestic and international data security. On March 5, the working group will examine the differences between the U.S. and European data security regulations, the challenges those differences create for citizens and businesses and whether the two sides' ongoing trade negotiations will address those differences, said Blackburn's office. It said the group will also discuss whether Congress should enact legislation to make U.S. privacy laws more in line with those of Europe.
The Cato Institute updated its congressional trade votes database to include votes from 2013 on trade bills and amendments in both chambers of Congress. The database translates the voting records of lawmakers into an ideological stance on trade, said Cato trade analyst William Watson in a blog post. “Whether a particular member qualifies as a free trader, an isolationist, an internationalist, or an interventionist based on our methodology depends on their support for (or opposition to) trade barriers and subsidies,” said Watson. “In previous years, the farm bill and its various amendments have provided a treasure trove of vote data to pin down members’ proclivities on specific commodities and willingness to use public money to distort the economy for the benefit of select cronies. This year was no different, except that votes taken in the House of Representatives on the full package bill have been excluded.” The Farm Bill debate focused almost solely on food stamps, said Watson.
The inclusion of relaxed rules of origin for Vietnamese textiles and apparel in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would jeopardize hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs in the domestic textile industry, said four New Hampshire lawmakers in a Feb. 27 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. The Vietnamese efforts to press increased flexibilities in U.S.-Vietnam bilateral negotiations on rules of origin would allow the country to source products from subsidized Chinese companies, said Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., along with Reps. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., and Ann McLane Kuster, D-N.H.
President Barack Obama sent to the Senate on Feb. 27 the nomination of Robert Holleyman as deputy U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the White House announced. Holleyman served as president of the Business Software Alliance for more than 20 years before stepping down in 2013 (here). Holleyman would replace outgoing deputy USTR Miriam Sapiro (see 14022705).
Transnational criminals are exploiting the lack of formal entry processes at courier facilities to smuggle counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs into the U.S., said Lev Kubiak, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, at a Feb. 27 hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. The center teams with CBP to target counterfeit merchandise and pirated works, but prioritizes health and safety and the military supply chain due to limited resources, said Kubiak in written testimony (here).
The draft tax reform legislation released on Feb. 26 by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., recommends a 6 cents per gallon increase in Inland Waterways Trust Fund fees for inland waterways towboat operators, said Waterways Council (WCI) President Michael Toohey in a press release praising the provision. The Tax Reform Act of 2014 (here) incorporates a user fee hike provision from the WAVE4 Act, HR-1149 (here), introduced in 2013. The tax reform legislation would boost the user fee 6 cents from its current 20 cents per-gallon level.
Tea Party claims that Trade Promotion Authority is unconstitutional are categorically false, said National Foreign Trade Council officials in a Feb. 25 post, claiming a 1892 Supreme Court decision set constitutional precedent for the legislation. “The Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities Act of 2014, a recently introduced bill to modernize TPA, does not grant any additional powers to the President; it simply guides him on how to implement the authority Congress is exercising,” said the post. “And this is not speculation by overwrought supporters of TPA. This question has been litigated all the way to the Supreme Court in 1892 in the Field v. Clark ruling.” In the case, the Supreme Court ruled the president was constitutionally able to suspend certain tariff provisions because Congress initially enacted the suspension.