The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a hearing on reform of the World Trade Organization on July 29 at 10:15 a.m. EDT. Witnesses include :Jennifer Hillman, senior fellow for trade and international political economy at the Council on Foreign Relations: Thomas R. Graham, partner at Cassidy Levy Kent: Laura J. Lane, president of global public affairs for UPS; Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute; and Michele Kuruc, vice president for ocean policy at the World Wildlife Fund.
The House version of the National Defense Authorization Act includes an amendment from Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., that directs the Pentagon to issue rules requiring companies that sell at military base commissaries and that import either products or materials from the Xinjiang province to audit their supply chains to ensure their goods are not manufactured using forced labor. Companies that discover a connection to Uighur camps or forced relocations would need to tell the Defense Department whether “they intend to continue sourcing from the region if their supply chains are tainted by forced labor,” Wexton said in a news release. The bill passed the House July 21.
Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., recently introduced the Safeguarding Therapeutics Act, which would expand FDA authority to seize and destroy counterfeits of medical devices, such as EpiPens or a pre-loaded vaccine delivery syringe. It's a companion bill for a House provision (see 2003110003) that is in the latest COVID-19 relief package passed by that chamber. Congress gave FDA the ability to seize and destroy counterfeit drugs in 2012.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced a bill that would compel companies to disclose what they are doing to “eradicate forced labor, slavery, and human trafficking from their supply chains,” and would require independent audits at major companies to ensure they are not complicit in forced labor in their supply chains. “If corporate America wants to be the face of social change today, they should have to certify they are completely slave-free,” Hawley said in a news release. “Participate in independent audits to verify it and disclose steps to ensure slave labor won’t become part of the equation later on. And if they refuse to do so, they should pay the price. That’s social responsibility.”
The Senate Finance Committee will consider the nomination of Michael Nemelka to be a deputy U.S. trade representative for investment, services, labor, environment, Africa, China and the Western Hemisphere at a hearing July 21. Nemelka is currently a special adviser to USTR Robert Lighthizer.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said during a conference call with reporters July 17 he doesn't know if the U.S. trade representative and Canada have resolved their differences over Canadian aluminum imports. The USTR has said that he was consulting with Canada about a surge of imports. Some news outlets reported three weeks ago that he would re-impose 10% tariffs on aluminum, but so far that has not happened (see 2006250048).
The International Trade Commission is asking for an additional $2.75 million over its current funding level of $99.4 million because of the demands of high levels of antidumping and Section 337 investigations, and the requirement to do an investigation on “whether the U.S. long-haul trucking industry is materially harmed by an increase in cross-border trucking services provided by Mexican suppliers.” That investigation is part of USMCA implementation.
The House Appropriations Committee has approved a bill that would increase trade funding at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Bureau of Industry and Security and the International Trade Administration. The committee voted July 14, and now goes to the full House. The bill, which passed the committee only with Democrat votes, and so may not be tolerable to the Republicans who control the Senate, increases funding to BIS by $9.6 million, to $137.6 million. It increases funding to USTR by $1 million, to $55 million, and ups funding to the International Trade Administration by $21.4 million, to $542.4 million. Spending for CBP will be part of a Department of Homeland Security bill, and the amount has not been determined yet.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is praising the House Appropriations Committee for dedicating $172 million for additional customs officers, agricultural specialists and support personnel to support trade, and recommends more money for ACE and the International Trade Data System single window.
All 27 members of Florida's delegation to the House of Representatives are pressing U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to find a way to make Florida fruits and vegetables more competitive with Mexican imports. Farmers cannot bring a typical antidumping or countervailing duty case against the imports because growers in other regions don't agree that the competition is unfair, so there isn't a majority vote to bring the case.