The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s FY 2014 funding bill in the House includes recommendations to delay a mandatory country-of-origin labeling rule and create a trusted importer program, but does not include the USDA’s proposed food importer fee. The House Appropriations Committee marked up the bill June 13. Read the complete draft bill (here).
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., plans to introduce a bill later this year to create an overarching strategic economic dialogue between the U.S. and Brazil, to increase visibility and oversight of the bilateral trade relationship, Nunes said June 12. He spoke at a Subcommittee hearing on trade and investment opportunities in Brazil, where witnesses and lawmakers said the U.S. should work to ease trade flows between the countries to tap into Brazil’s vital, ever-growing market. The country has raised its global profile in recent years, they said, securing the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics; the new World Trade Organization Director General is Brazilian, and the country’s president, Dilma Rousseff, will make a state visit this October.
Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer is asking CBP to help develop a customs facility at MacArthur Airport in his home state of New York, a move he says would increase airport traffic and give local residents easier access to international flights. The Long Island airport is developing a plan to retrofit its current facilities to allow for flights from certain international destinations to land, Schumer said in a June 12 statement (here). That plan must be approved by CBP. “A customs facility at MacArthur could be a magnet for new carriers, helping the airport regain some of its lost flights and giving Long Islanders direct access to some of the most popular tourist destinations,” said Schumer. “The feds can make this happen, and I’m asking them to work hand-in-glove with the local airport authorities to produce a plan and get it through the approval process.”
New lobbyist registrations on trade-related issues include:
Recently introduced trade-related legislation in Congress, as of June 10, includes:
The Senate approved the 2014 farm bill in a 66-27 vote June 10, which would reauthorize numerous agricultural programs through 2018, including extensions of export credit and foreign market development funding. The bill would also create a new position within the Department of Agriculture charged with handling all of USDA’s export and import functions, and being a “multiagency coordinator of sanitary and phytosanitary issues and nontariff trade barriers in agriculture.” It would be a presidentially nominated, Senate-approved, position. The bill would require the USDA Secretary to submit a report to Congress 180 days after the passage of the bill, proposing a plan for reorganizing the Department’s international trade functions -- including hiring the new Under Secretary. The actual reorganization and hiring of the Under Secretary would take place one year after the bill was passed. Read the complete Senate bill (here).
President Obama's nominees for Transportation Secretary and Commerce Secretary were both approved unanimously by the Senate Commerce Committee June 10. The nominations now head to the full Senate for a final confirmation vote. Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said there has been "strong bipartisan support for these nominees, and it was evident again today when they were both voted unanimously out of the Commerce Committee. I urge my colleagues to act quickly now to schedule votes on their nominations." For more on Transportation Secretary nominee Anthony Foxx, currently mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, see 13043017. For more on Commerce nominee Penny Pritzker, longtime Obama fundraiser and businesswoman, see 13050221.
The Senate Finance Committee approved the nomination of Mike Froman to be U.S. Trade Representative during a June 11 hearing. Froman's nomination now heads for to the full Senate for a vote. See 13060722 for more on Froman's June 6 nomination hearing.
With Iran’s presidential election just days away, Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., wants the Treasury Department to “seriously consider” naming some of the country’s top presidential contenders Specially Designated Nationals for human rights abuse violations. “Sanctioning candidates for Iran’s highest political office would signal to the Iranian regime that the United States will not cooperate with human rights violators,” said Casey in a June 7 letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. Iran’s presidential elections will be on June 14. Casey said candidate Mohammad Qalibaf allegedly admitted to personally committing numerous human rights violations, while fellow candidate Saeed Jalili oversaw security forces responsible for violence against peaceful protestors. The six other candidates have also held government positions while the Iranian people “suffered substantial violence and repression at the hands of their government,” Casey said. He asked Lew to investigate allegations of the candidate’s human rights violations and consider adding them to the SDN List. If Lew determines the candidates should not be added to the SDN List, Casey wants Lew to reply explaining the determination for each individual.
Two lawmakers have introduced House and Senate bills repealing the Export-Import Bank’s authority and creating a specific process for a bank phasedown. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who introduced the Senate bill, S-1102, June 6, said the Bank harms taxpayers through its export subsidies, which encourage an “international corporate subsidy bidding war.” Instead, the U.S. should use multilateral agreements to eliminate business subsidies in all nations, Lee said. The House version, HR-2263, was introduced June 5 by Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich. “The Export-Import Bank has always been a bad idea and needs to be shut down,” Amash said in a statement. “Export subsidies, like those provided by the Export-Import Bank, serve only to enrich well-connected special interests at the expense of the rest of the country.”