The House of Representatives approved a bill May 9 to reauthorize the U.S. Export-Import Bank. The bipartisan legislation would increase the bank's lending limit to $140 billion by 2014. The text of the legislation is (here).
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is working in the Asia-Pacific region to increase supply chain security there, DHS Office of International Affairs Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Koumans said during testimony May 8, 2012. He also lauded a number of existing programs said to have helped the trade relationship between the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region. Koumans spoke before the House Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Transportation Security during a hearing on “Building Secure Partnerships in Travel, Commerce, and Trade with the Asia-Pacific Region.”
The following are the trade-related hearings scheduled from May 7-11, 2012:
Trans-Pacific Partnership talks involving Vietnam are "particularly important" because it's the second-largest exporter of apparel to the U.S., 74 members of Congress said in a May 1 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. The letter noted that Vietnam's exports to the U.S. grew 15,000% in the past ten years, fueled by textiles.
A group of U.S. Senators asked President Barack Obama to rethink the current approach to apparel tariffs in the Trans-Pacific Partnership in a May 1, 2012 letter to the President. The letter asked that U.S. negotiators promote flexible rules of origin and meaningful market access to maximize the incentive to increase U.S. exports and jobs.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) continued efforts to develop new markets for Alaska’s 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas on the North Slope by raising the potential of providing a long-term supply to Japan. Murkowski discussed the idea with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda at a dinner hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said a press release..
The U.S. should focus its efforts during the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) on addressing significant and systemic market access barriers that impede U.S. exports and investment, said a group of House Ways and Means Committee Republicans in a April 27, 2012, letter. The lawmakers sent the letter Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Commerce Secretary John Bryson, and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
On April 26 2012, the following trade-related bills and resolutions were introduced:
The American Association of Port Authorities continued to press Congress on the importance of well-funded port security grants and the consequences of merging them with other homeland security programs, in testimony by Port of Tampa CEO Richard Wainio before the House Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness. In his testimony representing AAPA, Wainio said the trend of reducing port grant allocations "is troubling and counterproductive," because the grants are "an essential component in assisting ports to meet important mandates under federal law." He also highlighted the problems associated with reducing the schedule for completing approved port security projects to two years, rather than the customary three to five years. He went on to focus on the challenges to many ports, including his own, of paying the 25 percent cost-share required of many port security grants.
House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-Mich.) voiced his support April 26 for plans for a hearing on giving Russia Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) announced by the committee's Chairman, Dave Camp (R-Mich.) Levin said the hearing is long overdue, considering it has been four months since Russia was granted membership to the World Trade Organization.