Seven full business days of testimony in front of the International Trade Commission on List 4 of Chinese products set for Section 301 tariffs begins June 17 (see 1906140042). Representatives from dozens of industries -- including apparel, bicycles, tech, chemicals, textiles, equipment manufacturing, retail, shipping, pharmaceutical and air conditioning -- will testify. The testimony will not be televised, but submitted comments can be read at regulations.gov.
One member of each party from the House and Senate have joined together on a letter to the U.S. trade representative about exclusions for Section 301, and how the process for List 3 might be expedited. The letter, sent June 12 by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.; Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind.; Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.; and Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., asks USTR if the office needs more resources to get through all the requests. They also asked that when requests are granted, relief is retroactive to September 2018, not just when the tariff climbed from 10 percent to 25 percent. "As we near the one-year mark of the application of tariffs on Chinese imports included on Lists 1 and 2, we anticipate your office will see the value in automatically granting renewed exclusions for products which had already received an exclusion," they wrote.
The Customs Business Fairness Act, a bill that changes the treatment of customs brokers when their customers go into bankruptcy, has not gotten enough support, said Jon Kent, who lobbies on behalf of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, during a June 13 webinar.
The House Appropriations Committee passed a Department of Homeland Security bill with no Republican support on June 11, including $13.8 billion for CBP. That's $1.1 billion below the current fiscal year's level. It does include money to hire 1,200 additional CBP officers, 406 mission support personnel and 240 agriculture specialists. It also includes $20 million for port of entry technology and $30 million for trade enforcement.
The top Democrat and top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee agree that the volume of migrants coming from Central America is a problem, and that tariffs on Mexican goods aren't a great way to solve it. The two were speaking at a June 12 program at the Atlantic Council about the tariffs on Mexican imports that were averted last weekend.
The House of Representatives was very close to taking a vote to stop 5 percent tariffs on Mexico, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said June 11. He said that vote could have come this week or next week, if President Donald Trump hadn't changed his mind. "What the president does is a pattern: Threaten things, then claim victory because something happened," he said. "We don't really know what the Mexicans are or aren't going to do. That is troublesome."
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection will hold a legislative hearing on dangerous consumer products and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Energy and Commerce said in a news release. “The Consumer Product Safety Commission has been inactive for far too long while American children have been dying from long-known dangers like furniture tip-overs, inclined sleepers, and crib bumpers,” said Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill. “It’s time for Congress to act to protect consumers and spur greater CPSC enforcement and outreach. The Committee will examine legislation at this hearing to do just that.” The hearing is scheduled for June 13 at 10:30 a.m. in Room 2123 Rayburn.
The New Democrats caucus, which includes the most pro-free-trade members in the party in the House of Representatives, has released a lengthy list of things they want to see in exchange for their votes for the new NAFTA ratification.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., at a press conference with reporters June 4, said imposing tariffs on Mexico could affect the fate of the NAFTA rewrite in Congress but also suggested the discussions on how to fix the NAFTA rewrite can continue even under this cloud.
Trade Works for America, one of several coalitions lobbying for ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, already has met with more than 50 Congress member offices, both Republicans and Democrats. But Marie Sanderson, a senior adviser for the coalition and former policy director for the Republican Governors Association, said it's just as important to educate constituents in swing districts and some Republican districts about the benefits of the revised NAFTA.