The U.S. government should seek regulatory alignment with other countries and standards organizations on advance data for air cargo shipments, Express Association of America Executive Director Mike Mullen told House lawmakers July 25. Industry leaders provided recommendations for implementation of the Department of Homeland Security’s Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) program and other air cargo security initiatives during a House Homeland Security Transportation and Protective Security Subcommittee hearing. "It is vital to develop a common global solution that recognizes and supports the different air cargo business models and to achieve mutual recognition of security programs and risk assessment results," Mullen said in written testimony. "The global solution should harmonize data requirements and eliminate duplication by ensuring shipment data is only submitted to one country for a single security risk assessment that is accepted by partners with whom that country has a mutual recognition agreement."
Lawmakers recently introduced the following trade-related bills:
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) should update its Known Shipper program to reflect modern e-commerce and move cargo inspectors under the agency’s policy division, Airforwarders Association Executive Director Brandon Fried said in testimony (here) submitted prior to a July 25 House Homeland Security Transportation and Protective Security Subcommittee hearing. Fried noted that e-commerce has grown from being “nascent” when the program started in 2001, into a $500 billion industry in U.S. retail sales over the past year. The program eliminated anonymous shipment of all documents, parcels, counter-to-counter packages and freight on flights originating in the U.S.
Customs brokerage Thomas Ferramosca Associates recently sent a letter to House lawmakers calling for legislation to allow firms to claim drawback on duty-liable imported goods withdrawn from foreign-trade zones for direct export. In a July 18 letter to Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and to the congressman representing the Staten Island, New York, brokerage’s district, Rep. Dan Donovan (R), Tom Ferramosca Jr. said that allowing for direct export qualifications could be an “enticement” for companies to produce and export more from the U.S., in part because “the more that’s exported, the more that can be claimed against merchandise sold in the U.S. with potential duty liability.” If allowed drawback benefits, FTZ goods classified as “privileged foreign” or “non-privileged foreign” provide “the greatest opportunities” to boost U.S. manufacturing, expand exports and stimulate job growth, the letter says.
Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, urged Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb in a July 21 letter (here) to use its temporary import authority to stop companies from raising the price of “niche” drugs that face little or no competition in the U.S. “Often, the product has been on the market for years, and there is no patent on the active ingredient,” the senators wrote. “We encourage you to use the FDA’s authority to stop this practice, which increases the cost of prescription drugs without any benefit, and to consider whether additional authority is needed.” Versions of the referenced drugs are often available for much lower prices overseas, they said. For example, Mylan raised the price of the EpiPen from $100 to more than $600 since acquiring the product in 2007, even as the “Jext pen” sold for $34-$67 across Europe; and in 2015, Turing Pharmaceuticals “overnight” raised the price of anti-parasitic Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill, although generics sold in Europe for as little as $1 per pill, Klobuchar and Lee said.
Several Senate Finance Committee members in a July 24 letter (here) to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross reiterated their hopes for concluding a new softwood lumber agreement with Canada that meets domestic industry needs. Six of the seven members signing the letter, led by committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, had also signed onto an October letter to former President Barack Obama calling for his administration to conclude a new deal (see 1610240034).
The International Trade Commission should ignore claims about domestic production that lack hard evidence when it considers disqualifications for miscellaneous tariff bill (MTB) benefits, the top four trade lawmakers said in a July 21 letter to ITC Chairwoman Rhonda Schmidtlein (here). Congress anticipates considering a first round of MTB legislation “later this year,” the letter days. For articles to be eligible for MTB duty relief, each product must cost less than $500,000 in U.S. government revenue loss, not be produced in the U.S., and not be considered controversial. “The Committees emphasize that blanket assertions regarding domestic production without evidence demonstrating such production should be deemed insufficient,” wrote House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and ranking member Richard Neal, D-Mass., as well as Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore. “An objection based upon imminent production must demonstrate more than that production is theoretically possible.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee on July 20 advanced fiscal year 2018 agriculture spending legislation (here) that would require the Food Safety and Inspection Service to determine inspection equivalence no later than March 1 for all countries that want to continue exporting catfish to the U.S., according to the bill’s committee report (here). The report directs FSIS to complete country-by-country equivalence determinations “based on volume of catfish exports to the United States.” The bill matches the $1 billion outlined for total FSIS funding in the House Appropriations Committee-approved version, and would provide $953.2 million for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, $46.8 million above the amount outlined in the House version.
Upstate New York Reps. Chris Collins, a Republican, and Brian Higgins, a Democrat, urged Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and CBP Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan to implement procedures to reduce processing times at the northern U.S. border for commercial vehicles, Collins’ office said (here). Modernizing the collection of the port-of-entry user fee and requiring all empty trucks to report via e-manifest would reduce processing times, the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the officials (here). “Most people understand that congestion at international crossings, particularly truck congestion, is primarily due to Customs procedures,” Peace Bridge (N.Y.) Authority General Manager Ron Rienas said in a statement. “These common sense regulatory fixes should be implemented as soon as possible. Having Customs officers collecting cash and manually inputting manifest data does nothing to enhance national security.”
Lawmakers recently introduced the following trade-related bills: