Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., is recruiting signers to a letter that asks the U.S. trade representative to include binding climate standards in NAFTA 2.0, also known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. However, as the trade and environmental advisory committee noted when it evaluated the NAFTA rewrite, "Congress has mandated that trade accords should not include provisions that regulate greenhouse gas emissions." Because of that statute, passed in 2015 in the customs reauthorization, the advisory committee said it wished that the new NAFTA had incentivized trade and investment in renewable energy and building infrastructure that addresses climate change.
Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., who led a letter asking for at least partial Generalized System of Preferences benefits restoration for India (see 1909170071), said he has no insight into whether any will be restored, partially or in whole. "I don't have any particular access to [White House economic adviser Peter] Navarro or [President Donald] Trump's thinking," Himes said in a brief hallway interview Sept. 19 with International Trade Today. "I hope so, it's important to my district." Tasty Bite, which imports packaged pre-cooked vegetarian Indian dishes that are sold in grocery stores, is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. "The non-GSP world makes their life more challenging."
Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer asking him to prioritize the removal of Section 232 retaliatory tariffs from India, which have resulted in a 70 percent tariff on U.S. apples in that country. Before the U.S. hit Indian steel with 25 percent tariffs, U.S. apples were taxed at 50 percent in India. India held off on retaliation for more than a year, but when the U.S. announced it would terminate India's eligibility for the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, it responded in kind (see 1906170053).
Legislative discussions continue for how to shape legislation in order to regain control of trade policy from the Trump administration as the legislative branch is further pushed to the sidelines, a former senior U.S. trade negotiator said. Barbara Weisel, former assistant U.S. trade representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said Congress is beginning to question how it can retake its constitutionally granted powers over trade, which have been overtaken by the Trump administration and its preference for bilateral negotiations. “One has to believe there are many members of Congress now who are debating and quietly discussing how they are going to adjust this issue,” Weisel said during a Sept. 17 event at the Brookings Institution in Washington, focused on the "America First" trade policy with regard to Japan and Taiwan. “And I think it’s about time.”
Twenty-three trade associations, led by the National Foreign Trade Council, have sent a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate committees with trade jurisdiction, asking them to hold public hearings on tariffs proposed by President Donald Trump, and telling them the Tariff Reform Coalition wants to "work with you to pass appropriate tariff reform legislation as soon as possible."
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, says he has not been able to see the written counterproposal on the NAFTA rewrite from the USTR to the House Democrat working group, but said that ending the ability to block panels in state-to-state dispute is under discussion. Grassley said his staff has had an overview of the administration's proposals to refine the new NAFTA, known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, "and we look at it as something we can live with." He said he doesn't know how Democrats have received the counterproposal. "I think that’s more important than my reaction to it," he said.
A group of 26 Democrats and 18 Republicans in the House of Representatives sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer asking that India be at least partially restored to Generalized System of Preferences eligiblity. The Sept. 17 letter, led by Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., and Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kan., said that they take the market access complaints seriously, but asked that if there is progress on any front, the administration consider partially restoring GSP in exchange for India resolving "some individual issues." The Congress members said that companies are being harmed by new tariffs due to the GSP termination.
Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., is seeking more colleagues to join a letter asking the administration to move Switzerland to the front of the line for trade negotiations. Four other Democrats and two Republicans, including fellow Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Texas, are on board. Beyer noted that Switzerland is the country's ninth-largest trading partner. "A Swiss FTA presents an opportunity to negotiate a benchmark-setting agreement with a committed and open partner known for its high standards for labor and environmental protection," he said. Beyer was previously the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue said that while there are already enough Democrats who want to vote for a new NAFTA to make a majority with Republicans, he understands that the administration will have to make adjustments on "two or three little issues" to get House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to bring it to a vote, and he said the Chamber "absolutely supports" those changes.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., a leading NAFTA critic and member of the Democrat working group negotiating for changes to the NAFTA rewrite, told a radio host in Connecticut that the working group has not yet closed the gap between the Trump administration and House Democrats on any one of the four areas where they are seeking changes. Those areas are labor standards, the environment, enforcement and the biologics exclusivity period.