Senate Finance Committee Democrats, including the ranking member, are urging U.S. Chamber of Commerce members “to take immediate action to ensure goods manufactured for them are not complicit in the China’s state-directed human rights abuses, including by relocating production” from Xinjiang province. In an Oct. 27 letter, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said multinational companies need to be part of the solution in eradicating forced labor in China. “We will continue to push Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to investigate and issue region-wide Withhold Release Orders (WROs) for all products known to be produced in the [Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China] and to implement a comprehensive response to the Chinese government’s violation of human rights,” they said.
The Democrat who would lead the Finance Committee if the Senate majority changes parties after the election blasted President Donald Trump over labor, auto rules of origin, dairy and biotech export regulations, in a letter that said the benefits promised in renegotiating NAFTA have not been delivered. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote in the Oct. 30 letter that “the Administration has yet to bring any enforcement action under either the state-to-state dispute settlement or the new Rapid Response Mechanism despite the persistence of labor violations in Mexico.”
Lawmakers from both parties are asking the Commerce Department and CBP to investigate transshipment and other forms of evasion of antidumping and countervailing duty orders against Chinese-made cabinets. “Time is of the essence so we are urging Commerce and CBP to swiftly investigate and take necessary action to address China's illegal trade practices and protect American manufacturing,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said in a press release announcing an Oct. 27 letter. Manchin, along with Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D.; Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va.; and Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., led the letter that was signed by 31 other members of Congress. The Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association, which put out the release, thanked the members for their support, and said it will ensure that the agencies take swift actin to end circumvention.
The top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee is asking in a letter to the Consumer Product Safety Commission if it coordinates with CBP to inspect shipments coming from regions with human rights abuses, such as China's Xinjiang autonomous territory. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore. -- joined in signing the Oct. 27 letter by fellow Republican Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, Buddy Carter of Georgia, and Jeff Duncan of South Carolina -- also asked the agency to detail where Uighur women's hair is being sold in the U.S., even if it didn't arrive from Xinjiang. They note that CBP seized human hair from Xinjiang in July. The letter does not explain why the lawmakers are asking CPSC about issues relating to human rights, as the CPSC is tasked with preventing dangerous products from getting to consumers, not in stopping the import of products which were made by harming those involved in its production.
Ohio's two U.S. senators told the International Trade Commission that Whirlpool and other U.S. washing machine producers need an extension of safeguard tariffs on imports “for the industry to continue to invest in its people, plants, and products.” As Whirlpool said in August, when it requested an extension through Feb. 7, 2024, (see 2008110051), the senators asked that the tariff rate quota be relaxed “only very modestly over the course of the extension.”
Five Republican House members told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in an Oct. 23 letter that the importation of electrical transformers and transformer cores is not a national security issue, and that the increase in imports of the goods from Canada and Mexico is a logical consequence of putting 25% tariffs on the steel used to make these goods. The letter, led by Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Va., said that adding Section 232 tariffs could put 15,000 transformer industry jobs at risk. Riggleman was defeated in his primary. Reps. Benjamin Cline and Morgan Griffith, both of Virginia; Dan Bishop of North Carolina; and Bruce Westerman of Arkansas also signed.
A bipartisan letter from 33 House members representing pecan-growing states asks U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to argue for lower tariffs on U.S. pecans imported by India as part of an agreement to reinstate that country's participation in the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program. The Oct. 15 letter, led by Georgia Reps. Austin Scott (R) and Sanford Bishop (D), said the 36% tariff on pecans makes it difficult for American producers to compete in the market.
The Coalition for a Prosperous America, a group allied with the Trump approach to trade, wrote to the heads of the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee to argue that a clean renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program neither serves American economic interests nor furthers economic development in eligible countries. “The primary advocates for GSP are foreign countries, importers and multinationals seeking to buy the lowest priced products from the lowest wage countries,” the CPA wrote Oct 15. “Those interests are trying to avoid buying from American suppliers who hire American workers and comply with American labor and environmental laws.”
The National Taxpayers Union, reacting to a bipartisan resolution opposing duty-free import of apparel and shoes from all Generalized System of Preferences beneficiary countries, said that resolution (see 2010060027) ought to be called the keep-apparel-production-in-China resolution. There is no public push from apparel importers to add the category to GSP on the current renewal.
Former House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, told reporters that as the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative considers whether Vietnam should be punished for currency manipulation (see 2010050036), he should rely on a “bipartisan definition of currency manipulation” described in the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (TFTEA). Brady, who was speaking to reporters on a teleconference Oct. 7, noted that TFTEA was one of the first bills he shepherded through the committee when he took the gavel.