Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asked the FDA commissioner to justify importing a different formulation of the cancer infusion drug cisplatin that has been approved in the U.S., from Qilu Pharmaceutical in China.
More than 30 members of the House of Representatives cautioned the International Trade Commission and the Department of Commerce about their investigations on tin mill products from eight countries, arguing any antidumping duties impose as a result of the investigations could increase costs for downstream U.S. industries and raising U.S. food prices, in a June 12 letter to the chairman of the ITC and the undersecretary of commerce for international trade.
The chairmen of the House Small Business Committee and the House Select Committee on China are asking for a detailed briefing by the end of June on DOJ's efforts to combat Chinese intellectual property theft.
The House of Representatives passed the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act by a 248-180 vote June 13. The bill forbids the Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban gas stoves, or enforce any consumer product safety standard or rule on gas stoves that would result in a prohibition on the sale of gas stoves, "or would otherwise substantially increase the average price of gas stoves in the United States."
A bill that would change a number of tax provisions, including tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act that govern where critical minerals, advanced batteries and electric vehicles can be sourced, passed the House Ways and Means Committee on a party-line vote.
A recently introduced bill would end Chinese and Russian shippers' eligibility for de minimis, and would order the Treasury Department to determine, within 180 days, what rates the other countries deserve for de minimis, based on both their own de minimis treatment of U.S. shipments and their threshold to collect a value-added tax, if they have one.
A bill that approves the Taiwan trade initiative, but says it cannot take effect until the administration submits an economic analysis of its effects and answers questions from Congress on implementation, passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee on a 42-0 vote.
The bipartisan sponsors of The Americas Act, an ambitious bill that would invite most Central and South American countries into USMCA and offer funds to companies moving production from China to the U.S. or an Americas Act country, as well as covering diplomatic and temporary work visas, said they are working to line up support in Congress, talking to the administration, and talking to Western Hemisphere countries that could benefit from the policy, in an effort to get the bill passed.
Sen. Joe Manchin, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told the Treasury Department that its approach to measuring the value of critical minerals in electric vehicle batteries "seriously misconstrued the plain language and clear purpose of the critical minerals and battery component requirements" in the Inflation Reduction Act, and defeats Congress's goal of using consumer tax credits to reduce dependence on foreign supply chains for EV batteries.
Although the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade does not change tariffs, and therefore the administration says no legislative approval is needed, the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate committees that deal with trade have introduced a bill that would give it congressional approval.