The House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee will on April 14 hold a hearing to explore a path forward for miscellaneous tariff bill (MTB) legislation while upholding the House’s earmark ban, Ways and Means announced (here). A proposal by committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, would switch the initial consideration for limited tariff benefit reviews from House lawmakers to the International Trade Commission (see 1603310029). ITC would then submit product recommendations to the House for beneficiary treatment; the House could delete goods from that list, but wouldn’t be allowed to add any, before final approval. In a statement, subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert, R-Wash., said he is “eager” to explore how Brady’s proposal will strengthen U.S. manufacturing, lower costs, create more U.S. jobs, and save money for U.S. consumers. “American businesses are hurting because there is no longer a process in place to help them cut costs and compete with companies around the world,” Reichert said. “It’s time to develop a fair, transparent, and bipartisan process for considering manufacturing tax cuts that will help our businesses, benefit our consumers, and grow our economy.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee on April 7 approved Court of International Trade nominees Elizabeth Drake, Jennifer Groves, and Gary Katzmann. The nominees, who testified in January (see 1601280036), still need approval from the full Senate. Committee Ranking Member Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, noted that Judiciary hasn't held a judicial confirmation vote since early February, nor hosted a nomination hearing since January. “Committee members want to continue to discuss how this Committee should function – but that cannot be used as an excuse to further delay action on lower court nominees or legislation,” Leahy said in prepared remarks (here).
The Congressional Steel Caucus will on April 14 convene its yearly “State of Steel” hearing, whose witnesses will include U.S. Steel CEO Mario Longhi, Nucor Executive Vice President Chad Utermark, and Welded Tube President Robert Mandel, among others affected by the “worst import crises in modern history,” the caucus said (here). To be led by caucus Chairman Tim Murphy, R-Pa., and Vice Chairman Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., the hearing will allow U.S. steel industry leaders to confront the scourge of cheap foreign imports “that have led to mass layoffs and plant idlings and closings,” the caucus said.
The Congressional Research Service updated its frequently asked questions document on U.S. trade concepts on March 25 (here). The wide-ranging document covers both basic and more complex issues that affect trade policy.
Lawmakers recently introduced the following trade-related bills:
The State Department, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration should work to counteract requests from the Swedish Ministry of Environment and Energy to the EU to reclassify the Maine lobster as an invasive species and to prohibit live lobster imports to all 28 EU members, four members of Maine’s Congressional delegation wrote in a March 28 letter to the agencies (here). Maine’s top export to the EU is live lobster, and $196 million worth of lobster is exported from the state to Europe every year, wrote Sens. Angus King, I; and Susan Collins, R; and Reps. Chellie Pingree, D; and Bruce Poliquin, R. If reports that people simply releasing lobsters into European waters is true, then local law enforcement should first handle those matters, and countries should not erect barriers to legitimate trade, the lawmakers wrote. “Statements by the European Commission do not deem the appearance of alien species in new locations as a necessary cause for concern,” they said. “Since only a small number of Maine lobsters have been found in foreign waters, we believe regulators should take a more finely tuned approach before calling this an ‘invasion.’” The lawmakers asked that the relevant agencies report back to them about what steps are being taken to ensure continued European market access for Maine lobsters.
Senate Finance Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., commended CBP for blocking on March 29 a shipment of Chinese soda ash suspected of being made with forced or child labor, according to a Wyden statement (here). The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 closes loopholes on goods made with forced or child labor and this is the first time CBP has held a shipment pending a forced-labor determination since 2001, the Wyden said. “The Senate sent a strong message that there is no place for products made by slave labor in the United States, and today CBP followed suit by stepping up enforcement against forced prisoner-made goods,” Wyden said in the statement. “Eliminating these morally repugnant products from the market is the right thing to do, and it will help U.S. workers and products compete on even footing with other nations.” CBP previously said it is heavily reliant on outside reports for the agency's enforcement of the forced labor provisions (see 1602260049).
Nineteen of New York’s 27 delegates to the U.S. House on March 23 expressed bipartisan opposition against the Trans-Pacific Partnership in a letter (here) to President Barack Obama. The letter blasts the agreement as having no meaningful measures to combat currency manipulation, and highlights the losses of 370,000 manufacturing jobs throughout New York and 5 million across the U.S. since the NAFTA and World Trade Organization agreements entered into force in 1994. “While we recognize the difficulty in proving a causal connection between trade agreements and job losses, the federal government itself has certified more than 115,000 New York jobs under the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program as having been lost to imports or off-shoring since NAFTA,” the letter says. “TAA only covers a subset of jobs displaced due to trade, so this figure represents only a fraction of New York job losses directly attributable to trade agreements.”
Reps. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., and Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, jointly reintroduced the Trade Protection Not Troll Protection Act March 22. The bill (here), which the House didn't consider when it was introduced during the previous Congress, would require patent assertion entities to have a “vested interest” in a patent before the entity could seek an International Trade Commission patent infringement investigation. The bill would also give the ITC more leeway to consider at any point in Section 337 proceedings whether the investigation is in the public interest, rather than only when making a final determination in a case. The bill would codify the ITC's 2013 pilot program that allows a 100-day expedited fact-finding and hearing process in patent investigations. “American businesses are being crippled by the bureaucracy it takes to fight these claims,” Cardenas said in a news release (here). Patent litigation abuse “is a drag on our economy and it stifles innovation,” Farenthold said in the release. “Our legislation curbs the problem by targeting abusive patent trolls and discouraging frivolous patent lawsuits.” The Consumer Technology Association lauded Cardenas and Farenthold for reintroducing the bill, which was supported by Cisco, Dell and Google. The bill will allow the ITC to “continue to be a robust resource for U.S. companies, but it will be a less attractive venue for frivolous patent extortion,” said CTA CEO Gary Shapiro in a statement.
Ohio Sens. Rob Portman, R, and Sherrod Brown, D, wrote a letter (here) to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker expressing concern that her department is not applying “adverse facts available” comprehensively enough in trade cases involving uncooperative governments and businesses. The letter, which contains 20 other signatures from Democratic and Republican senators, said “time is of the essence” in implementing new authorities to mitigate the “devastating” impacts that illegal dumping has had on domestic production and employment. The “adverse facts available” principle allows the Commerce Department flexibility in assessing AD/CVD rates, and gives it ultimate discretion to apply the highest available countervailing subsidy rates or dumping margins in proceedings where a foreign entity provides insufficient information or fails to cooperate.