Lawmakers recently introduced the following trade-related bills:
The U.S. and China should resolve an ongoing "trade war" over solar panels and polysilicon materials that go into those products before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee considers any Bilateral Investment Treaty between the two countries, committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said April 28 during a hearing on U.S.-China relations. The latest offer from China on polysilicon imports appears "unacceptable and it looks like simple protectionism," said Corker. "This market obviously needs to reopen mutually beneficial trade and I expect this issue to be resolved soon and in a serious way,” Corker said during the hearing. “Surely the Chinese government and the U.S. government will be wise enough to fully resolve this problem before this committee considers the U.S.-China Bilateral Investment Treaty should it mature and be ready for putting forth here.” China and the U.S. both maintain antidumping and countervailing duties against each other on solar product imports.
Senate consideration of the American Manufacturing and Competitiveness Act may be considered the week of May 9, after the Senate returns from recess, said a lobbyist that's working on the issue. The House approved the miscellaneous tariff bill process reform legislation on April 27 (see 1604270041). Neither the Senate Finance Committee nor the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have scheduled action on the legislation. A spokeswoman for the Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, hopes the Senate will consider some form of the legislation now that it was approved by the House.
Information sharing between companies and CBP remains the best way to help the agency interdict counterfeit products, said administration officials, industry stakeholders, and senators said during an April 27 Senate hearing on counterfeits. CBP should be given adequate resources to combat illicit sales, and government and industry should work to educate the public about counterfeit detection methods, they said
The House of Representatives on April 26 passed Senate amendments to a bill that would establish an interagency coordinating committee to prevent illegal looting and trafficking of cultural property and foster the lawful trade of such goods, among other things. The bill now goes to President Barack Obama's desk for signature. The House originally passed the legislation in June 2015 (see 1604140039), but Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., on April 13 introduced an amendment that proposes to delegate oversight to fewer Congressional committees, shorten by 30 days the would-be deadline for the president to impose import restrictions, and extend firmer assurances of immunity from seizure of objects imported to the U.S. via a waiver. Under the passed bill, the White House would have until 90 days after enactment to restrict imports of any “archaeological or ethnological” materials from Syria, the bill says (here).
Lawmakers recently introduced the following trade-related bills:
New York Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand in a letter to U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones Board Executive Secretary Andrew McGilvray backed up Oneida County, N.Y.’s application to the U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones Board to reorganize under the Alternative Site Framework, the senators announced April 25 (here) and (here). If the alternate framework application is approved, Oneida County businesses could save money on duty payments, as the approval would provide the county the ability to identify usage-driven sites anywhere within it within 30 days for warehouse/distribution activities and 120 days for production activities, rather than the current “subzone” application process, which can last seven months or longer, the senators said in the letter.
Moving miscellaneous tariff bill (MTB) reform legislation forward isn’t ambitious enough to advance pro-growth policies for the U.S., leaders from two conservative organizations said in an April 25 op-ed for the National Review (here). Club for Growth President David McIntosh and Heritage Action for America CEO Michael Needham said Congress should go further than the current MTB proposal by erasing all tariffs that garner less than $500,000 per year in federal government revenue, make permanent any tariff relief enacted through any new MTB process, and change the criteria by which the International Trade Commission examines tariff benefit proposals. These moves could dilute the influence of lobbying, create better manufacturer certainty, and enhance U.S. industrial competitiveness, the two wrote. “If House Republicans want to do more than adhere to the letter of the earmark ban, they should use this opportunity to explain how tariffs hurt consumers, manufacturers, and America’s economy,” McIntosh and Needham said. “It cannot be said enough: Tariffs act as a tax on imported goods, increasing costs to consumers and making it more difficult for American firms to compete with foreign companies. Tariffs are not the antidote to our ailing economy, they are an accelerant that damages it even further.” The House is scheduled to vote on the MTB process reform legislation on April 27 (see 1604210038).
Congress should move fast to pass miscellaneous tariff bill process legislation, trade groups and companies said in a April 20 letter to lawmakers (here). "Action on a new MTB process is long overdue," said Walmart, DuPont, several regional customs broker groups and others in the letter. "To boost the competitiveness of our industries and correct longstanding distortions in the U.S. tariff code, we strongly urge Congress to work expeditiously and jointly to pass a new MTB process that will eliminate distortions in the U.S. tariff code that undermine the competitiveness and job growth of our industries." The House is scheduled to vote on an MTB process reform bill on April 27 (see 1604210038).
The fiscal 2017 Energy and Water spending bill reported out to the House floor on April 19 would add $391.3 million above President Barack Obama’s Army Corps of Engineers operations and maintenance funding request (here) for deep-draft harbor and channel navigation; donor and energy ports; inland waterways; navigation maintenance; and small, remote, and subsistence navigation, the bill’s report says (here). That money would help fund ongoing projects, and it appears that most of it would come from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) and the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, the report indicates. The House Appropriations Committee cleared the bill this week for an upcoming House floor vote. The Senate sent its version of fiscal 2017 energy and water spending legislation to the floor on April 14.