Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., introduced a bill this week that would impose a tariff on imported Australian Waygu beef. The U.S. and Australia have an FTA, but Australia does not allow any beef imports from the U.S., ostensibly over concerns over mad cow disease. A meat export trade group says typical U.S. beef would not be price-competitive in Australia, but argued that the trade barrier should be lowered nonetheless.
Five Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee introduced a bill this week that would repeal Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which allows a president to impose 50% tariffs on trading partners if they're deemed to be discriminating against U.S. products. It doesn't require the president to disclose the evidence of discrimination.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., the leader on a push to revoke the emergency underlying 25% tariffs on many Canadian goods and 10% tariffs on Canadian energy, said his resolution will get a vote on April 1.
Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, this month reintroduced a bill restricting imports of protected ornamental reef fish and coral species to protect "increasingly fragile coral reef ecosystems" collected through "destructive practices."
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee ranking member Linda Sánchez, D-Calif., and 13 other Democrats on the committee asked the administration not to cut the Department of Labor's International Labor Affairs Bureau staff and the programs they administer.
At a hearing largely focused on the need to get other countries to lower their tariffs, sanitary and phytosanitary barriers, and discriminatory tariffs on services exports, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee focused on Trump's tariff hikes.
Three congressional representatives sent a letter to the heads of the DOJ, DHS and the FDA, urging them to act against e-cigarette imports from China.
Four Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation to prevent the importation of devices which convert semiautomatic weapons into fully-automatic ones.
Correction: Republicans voted in the House to say that there will be no more calendar days in the rest of this session of Congress, through the end of 2025, in a procedural gambit directly blocking the ability of critics of President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canada and Mexico to challenge that policy (see 2503110049).
Reps. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., and Lizzie Fletcher, D-Texas, re-introduced a bill that would require the Treasury Department to study to what degree the tariff system is regressive, or hurts lower-income consumers more than more well-off consumers, and to what extent women's apparel faces higher tariffs than men's apparel.