More than 25 Republican lawmakers said they haven’t yet received a response from the Biden administration from their March letter urging U.S. officials to assist in negotiations between West Coast ports and their dockworkers’ union. In a new letter sent this week, they said negotiations have already been suspended once and they are concerned the Biden administration “does not share the same urgency raised by stakeholders and Congress.”
The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill along party lines the evening of June 2 that aims to improve gun safety and restrict the sale of ghost guns, bump stocks and large capacity magazines. The bill establishes "a new federal offense for the import, sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of a large capacity magazines, with exceptions for certain law enforcement uses," the committee said.
A trade group that includes eBay, Etsy, Poshmark and Pinterest, called the Coalition to Protect America's Small Sellers (PASS), is arguing that the INFORM Act belongs in the China package, but the SHOP SAFE Act does not. "While INFORM and SHOP SAFE seem similar they both are very different pieces of legislation, and most importantly, have conflicting disclosure and verification requirements for sellers," the group wrote in a June 2 letter sent to the leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.
A bipartisan bill was recently introduced that would codify the executive action on formula importation (see 2205260032) and which invites the administration to suspend tariffs on baby formula and formula ingredients.
A recent Congressional Research Service report on the phase one deal with China notes that there has been little discussion about how to enforce what China agreed to, and how to address issues that phase one didn't touch but were highlighted in the Section 301 report.
Four Republican senators, led by Roger Marshall of Kansas, asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai "to develop and begin executing a strategic plan for the long-term stability of fertilizer trade," because China, Russia and Belarus are unreliable trading partners for phosphates and potash. In a May 31 letter, the senators said the antidumping duties on Moroccan phosphates and the pending tariffs on urea ammonium nitrate from Trinidad and Tobago are only making the crunch worse. "Currently, 36% of the global tradable supply of phosphate fertilizers is not subject to U.S. duties," they wrote. "To believe these problems are only short-term is short-sighted. Even if the war in Ukraine would end tomorrow, our relations with Russia will take decades to heal and may never be the same. Western countries with fertilizer supply problems will be competing for fertilizer from 'friendly' countries."
A nonbinding resolution to pursue a free trade agreement with the U.K. passed the Senate through unanimous consent. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, hailed the passage in a May 26 news release. "The United States and the United Kingdom are the closest of allies and the most natural of economic partners. Since the British people have reclaimed the right to negotiate their own trade agreements, I have advocated for a robust trade agreement between our nations. I am overjoyed and encouraged to see the Senate pass this resolution calling for such a mutually beneficial agreement. Free trade between our nations would be good for Britons, for Americans, and particularly for Utahns who have such close economic ties to our friends across the pond," he said.
A group of 54 members of the House led by Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., are asking leadership of both chambers to make changes to Competitive Need Limitations in the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program proposed by the pair in H.R. 6171 (see 2112100058).
The four leaders of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a Democrat and a Republican from each chamber, are asking appropriators to fully fund the CBP request of $70.3 million to implement the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, for more employees, technology and training.
New Democrats Chair Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., and Trade Task Force Co-Chair Ron Kind, D-Wis., are asking the commerce secretary and the U.S. trade representative to reevaluate the quota arrangement with South Korea. "We recognize the steelmakers’ concerns about steel imports originating in nonmarket economies being transshipped through market economies. We also note the latest data from the Department of Commerce’s Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) system suggests that steel imported into the United States from Korea did not originate in China. According to SIMA, over 92% of Korean steel imports into the United States were melted and poured in Korea, and virtually all of the remaining 8% was melted and poured in Japan," their May 19 letter said. "The New Democrat Coalition is committed to forward-looking trade policy that promotes economic growth and strengthens our global relationships. As such, we appreciate your efforts thus far to lower prices and rebuild global partnerships, and we thank you for your consideration regarding this request." The letter also was signed by four other New Dem members: Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Jimmy Panetta of California, Don Beyer of Virginia and Ami Bera of California.