Nine members of the New Democrats -- free-trade oriented members whose votes will be needed to ratify the new NAFTA -- wrote to President Donald Trump March 27 arguing that imported cars are not a security threat and noting his response during a TV interview that acknowledged that they are not a threat. In the interview, he immediately added that the trade deficit is a threat. The letter, led by Rep. Terri Sewell, whose Alabama district is home to both Hyundai and Mercedes car plants, said, "We are pleased to hear that we are in agreement that no national security threat exists. Therefore, we urge you to remove any threat of unilateral tariffs on automobiles and auto parts under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act as soon as possible. Imposing tariffs under Section 232 on autos and auto parts for reasons not related to national security concerns clearly oversteps the authority granted by Congress."
As momentum seems to build in the Senate to rein in Section 232 tariffs, steel company CEOs told a sympathetic group of Congress members that the tariffs are working to increase domestic producers' market share and increase profits as well as employment numbers and pay for steelworkers. "The U.S. steel industry is still vulnerable. Now is not the time to blink," U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt said. Section 232 tariffs or a hard quota "must continue to be applied to all steel-producing countries, especially the top import sources. If the Section 232 doesn't apply everywhere, it's nowhere as border leaks will continue from global excess capacity."
After 25 Republican House members met with President Donald Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to talk about how to ratify the new NAFTA, Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., said on Fox Business News March 26 that he thinks Congress can do it before the August recess.
A bipartisan bill was recently introduced in the Senate to expand the Food and Drug Administration's oversight of cosmetics. The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has been introduced in past Congresses, without advancing. In the House, new Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., has had an interest in dangerous additives to imported cosmetics (see 1802020044 and 1708020028), and is working on a bill to expand the FDA's authority on cosmetics.
A dozen senators, led by Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Doug Jones, D-Ala., and Angus King, I-Maine, have asked Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to respond by early next month to follow-up questions they had after a staff briefing on the Section 232 auto report that has remained secret since it was given to President Donald Trump last month.
As the Senate Finance Committee works to find middle ground between a proposal that would give Congress the opportunity to rescind the steel and aluminum tariffs and stop any future Section 232 tariffs, and one that would require veto-proof majorities to stop future 232 tariffs, conservative groups, farmers and metals manufacturing companies are weighing in on the future bill. In a letter, sent March 18 and led by Americans for Prosperity, the signers say that the change should give Congress the ability to stop future tariffs before they're implemented -- echoing the approach of Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., in a bill he reintroduced in January this year (see 1901310029). The groups also say the committee should consider including a way for Congress to deal with the current Section 232 tariffs -- they described this as "transition rules" to provide lawmakers a path for "consideration of tariffs that have been unilaterally imposed prior to enactment of the legislation."
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., defended the Commerce Department's decision to withdraw from the suspension agreement with Mexico on tomatoes, a move he had lobbied for. Arizona tomato producers have criticized the move, and also do not want the antidumping laws to change so that one region's growers can press a case (see 1903060008). "Washington’s willingness to sacrifice entire domestic industries and local production just to shave pennies off the costs that American consumers might pay for products is one of the main reasons why Donald Trump is president today," he said in a March 13 press release. Rep. Neal Dunn, R-Fla., said, "The data is overwhelmingly clear, Mexico has been waging an assault on southeastern tomato producers for years -- and getting away with it. I applaud the Administration for putting domestic growers first and stand by their decision to terminate the suspension agreement."
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is pushing for agriculture to be on the table in trade talks with the European Union, and members of Congress continue to applaud that approach. A bipartisan group of 114 House members sent a letter March 14 to the USTR arguing that the EU has high tariffs on ag imports, "unscientific sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and protectionist policies on geographical indications that hurt American exports not only to the EU but also to countries all over the world." The letter -- led by Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn. -- says that a deal without agriculture would significantly jeopardize congressional support. The EU Parliament, in a non-binding vote this week, could not pass a resolution that said the EU should enter trade talks that include industrial goods and exclude agriculture. In order to start talks, all 28 member states have to approve a negotiating mandate.
The chairman and ranking member of the Senate committee that oversees mass transit, Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, who also is Republican Whip and No. 2 in party leadership, introduced a bill March 14 that would forbid transit agencies from buying rail cars or buses manufactured in the U.S. by a company that's owned by Chinese government-subsidized or -controlled companies. There is no U.S. manufacturer that makes subway cars or train passenger cars, but all foreign manufacturers must set up a factory in the U.S. to satisfy Buy America laws. "China poses a clear and present danger to our national security and has already infiltrated our rail and bus manufacturing industries,” Cornyn said in a statement announcing the bill. “The threat to our national security through the exploitation of our transportation and infrastructure sectors is one we should take seriously."
A Democrat and a Republican from two major auto-manufacturing states introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would delay any tariffs on autos or auto parts until the International Trade Commission completes a study of the impact they would have on the American auto industry. The ITC would analyze the number of auto components that are not produced in the U.S., the effect that an increase in auto manufacturing costs would have on jobs, as well as the regional effects of auto plants on wages, job growth, per capita income, unemployment and education. The bill, H.R. 1710, was introduced by Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., and Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., on March 13. Sewell, who said there are 40,000 autoworkers in her state, said, “This administration has overreached its Section 232 authority by claiming that cars and auto parts threaten American national security. An independent study by the ITC would ensure that U.S. trade policy takes into consideration its impacts on our American workers and consumers."