Without much fanfare, a bill that had not yet been formally introduced was amended to a reform of emergency economic powers and passed out of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee before the August recess. The bill, S. 2413, specifies that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, cannot be used to impose tariffs or quotas on imports.
Former New Democrat Coalition head Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., is leading a bipartisan letter asking that the administration restore India to the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program. The letter, which is still being circulated in a bid for more signatures before an introduction in September, notes that the House voted 400-2 to reauthorize the GSP program in 2018.
Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., introduced The Manufacturing, Investment, and Controls Review for Computer Hardware, Intellectual Property and Supply, or MICROCHIPS Act, to coordinate government responses to computer and telecom supply chain vulnerabilities.
Arizona's two senators -- a Democrat and a Republican -- are questioning the Commerce Department's efforts to update a recently terminated agreement between Mexico and the U.S. that ended an old antidumping case against Mexican tomatoes.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that a Brexit that makes a full break with the European customs union will not be rewarded with a U.S. free trade deal. Pelosi, who issued a statement Aug. 14 after National Security Adviser John Bolton said that a free trade agreement with Britain could be done quickly after Brexit, though he said it would have to tackle easier issues first and tackle other sectors later.
The trade aid was too generous to the richest farming families, suggests Rep. Ron Kind, a Democrat who represents a rural district in Wisconsin. Kind sent a letter Aug. 12 to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue saying he is deeply concerned about a report that shows that thousands of payments were larger than the stated limit, with 82 farms receiving payments of more than half a million dollars in taxpayer funds. He also cited the same study using U.S. Department of Agriculture data that found some payments went to people who do not reside on farms, but live in Manhattan, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and the like.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, talks repeatedly about how he wants to see Congress move to ratify the new NAFTA, or U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. But Grassley, speaking to reporters August 13 on a conference call, has not lobbied the three Democrats who represent Iowa in the House of Representatives.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., have introduced a companion bill to the House's U.S. Reciprocal Trade Act (see 1901240017).
Businesses would get a reason for their exclusion denials if a bill introduced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., earlier this month becomes law. S. 2362, which has no co-sponsors, would require that an exclusion process be opened before any Section 232 or Section 301 duties went into effect. The Commerce Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative would be required to make determinations within 30 days on each request. In a press release announcing the bill, Whitehouse said: “President Trump’s tariffs are causing enormous uncertainty for Rhode Island companies as they make decisions about adding jobs and investing in research and development. It is the least we can do to put in place a fair, orderly process to determine whether a business qualifies for a tariff waiver.”
Ten conservative groups, including Americans for Prosperity, the National Taxpayers Union and FreedomWorks, are asking the Senate Finance Committee to introduce a Section 232 reform bill closer to the Sen. Pat Toomey version than to the Sen. Rob Portman version. The two Republicans diverge on whether Congress could stop the imposition of national security tariffs before they start, or only reject tariffs once in place.