Twice this week, freshman Democrats elected from traditionally Republican districts called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finish negotiations on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and hold a vote for ratification. On Dec. 4, Rep. Kendra Horn, D-Okla., joined a press release from all Oklahoma House members, and she said in that release, “Finding common ground takes hard work, and we won’t cross the finish line with finger-pointing or partisan politics. As the year comes to a close, we must find a bipartisan agreement and bring the USMCA to the floor for a vote.” On Dec. 5, Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa, sent a letter to House leaders that said that while she doesn't want anything in the agreement that will cause the cost of biologic drugs to increase, and she thinks labor enforcement is important to curb outsourcing competition from Mexico, she also wants a vote before the end of the year. “Overall, Iowa is the second largest agricultural exporting state in the country,” she said, and trade wars have been hurting farmers. “Modernizing our trade agreement with our two closest neighbors is critical to ensuring market stability for Iowans.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, introduced a bill Dec. 5 that would give CBP the authority to seize imported merchandise that is not using other companies' trademarks but is otherwise identical to a branded product. The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America hailed the bill. “Relying on seizures based on just trademark rights is no longer effective. Counterfeiters around the world have become more creative, shipping identical looking products without the trademark and then attaching traditional trademarks after it clears U.S. customs,” FDRA said. Margo Fowler, chief intellectual property officer for Nike, was quoted in the FDRA press release about why the bill would help CBP: "It would enable them to identify and seize intended counterfeits that copy Nike’s products protected by U.S. design patents."
Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., a senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee and supporter of the Craft Beer Modernization Act, said that renewing the excise tax break for alcohol producers (see 1911270048) is part of the tax extenders package the Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees are working on. He said in an interview that Democrats in the House are trying to identify spending or revenue offsets for the tax breaks that might appeal to Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, “so we can move forward on it.” He said they're looking at a one- or two-year extension for the Craft Beer Modernization Act, depending on what the whole extenders package looks like.
The Dec. 3 House passage of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019 will have serious repercussions for U.S.-China trade talks if the bill becomes law, a China Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson threatened on Dec. 4. H.R. 649 and the companion S. 178 that cleared the Senate in September demand tough U.S. sanctions on China over reports of government-run detention centers imprisoning millions of Muslim-minority Chinese citizens in Xinjiang.
Exactly how the U.S. Trade Representative has agreed to change the 10-year biologics exclusivity period in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is unclear, but insiders are saying it will be less favorable to the pharmaceutical industry.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Reuters that despite the fact there was no action on auto tariffs at the end of the 180-day period announced for negotiations, that doesn't mean they are off the table. “It may or may not turn out that there is any need for the tariff,” he said Dec. 3, as the U.S. negotiates with German automakers.
Two prominent Republicans questioned the suitability of switching tariffs for quotas because of currency manipulation in Brazil and Argentina, as President Donald Trump said Dec. 2 he is doing. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., the leading critic of Trump's trade policy, issued a statement that night that said, “He is justifying these tariffs by citing Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. This provision is exclusively meant for national security threats. Yet, the President has acknowledged that the real purpose of this action is to combat currency manipulation -- which does not pose a national security threat. Furthermore, even if this action were legitimate, the statutory window for imposing these tariffs has closed. These actions further underscore that Congress should take up my legislation that would reassert congressional authority regarding imposition of national security tariffs.”
A top dairy lobbying group announced that executives would be visiting Congress Dec. 4 in what they characterized as “a last-ditch effort to save this deal,” and Farmers for Free Trade sent a letter to the top Republican and top Democrat in each chamber asking that the vote on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement come as soon as possible. The letter, signed by 2,200 farmers around the country, was sent Dec. 3, and said that trade wars have hurt agriculture badly. “We have suffered from retaliatory tariffs, lost market share, and watched while America’s competitors are seen as more reliable trading partners. The reasons for this crisis are manifold but providing certainty about continued trade with two of our three largest export markets would provide America’s farmers and food manufacturers with a needed boost,” the letter said. “We are counting on our elected officials to champion the folks back home and appreciate your urgent action.”
The top negotiator for Mexico on the new NAFTA told reporters in Canada on Nov. 29, “I think we are almost there.” Jesus Seade, who was in Canada meeting with his counterparts, had been in Washington the day before Thanksgiving to talk to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer about whether Mexico could live with the edits to the new NAFTA the Democrats had asked for. Seade told reporters that the edits might be finalized “sometime in the next week,” but if not then, he said he hopes it will be before Congress leaves town for the Christmas holiday. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a speech on the Senate floor Dec. 2 that “if a deal cannot be reached by the end of this week, I do not see how USMCA can be ratified in 2019. As it is, the window of opportunity for 2019 is extremely tight.”
Although the U.S. trade representative found a way to avoid a congressional vote on a U.S.-Japan trade deal by limiting the size of the initial U.S. tariff reductions, Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee are questioning whether the deal is allowed under the fast-track law. A letter sent Nov. 26, led by Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., and signed by every Democrat on the committee except the chairman and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., did not explicitly say that Democrats believe the law is not being followed, but repeatedly asked under what authority the agreement was reached. Among the specific issues raised were rules of origin or marking rules and whether there would be changes. The letter also asked if there is such a provision, why wasn't it mentioned in the notification to Congress.