Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., co-sponsor of the Endless Frontiers Act that was rolled up into a larger China competition package, said during a Bipartisan Policy Center program broadcast Feb. 18, "I think we’re poised to … have a genuine sit-down conference." There has been talk in the Capitol that there would be a negotiating process led by the leaders of the Republican and Democratic caucuses in the House and Senate, and that while committee chairs would have a say on the sections of the bills under their jurisdiction, there would not be a formal conference committee, whose discussions would be open to the public (see 2202020055). "That is the most methodical, I think, responsible process, and collaborative process," he added.
The Committee to Support U.S. Trade Laws recently sent a letter to House and Senate leadership, asking that the compromise reached between the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act and the America Competes Act continue the Leveling the Playing Field Act, a proposal that would rewrite antidumping duty and countervailing duty laws. "Any final package will be incomplete if it does not address China’s predatory economic behavior, which forms the core of the inequities and imbalances in the US-China relationship," they said, and said their industries have been harmed by China. "Passing a China competition bill without a meaningful trade enforcement title would be a serious missed opportunity for all of our American companies, industries and workers."
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, noted that a bill he recently introduced to stop imports of Russian seafood (see 2202110043) was included in a Republican-written sanctions package called Never Yielding Europe's Territory, or NYET, the Russian word for no. However, given that Democrats control both chambers, the bill is unlikely to become law. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., reacted to the bill by saying, “I am deeply disappointed in my Republican colleagues for introducing a partisan non-starter of a sanctions package. In choosing to do so, they are prioritizing partisanship over unity and self-promotion over meaningful support for the Ukrainian people. This partisan action does not meet the gravity of this serious moment."
A bipartisan bill that would require businesses with more than $500 million in gross annual receipts to conduct annual audits to investigate whether there is forced labor among their suppliers or secondary suppliers has been introduced again. Ted Murphy, a trade lawyer at Sidley Austin, wrote that while the Slave-Free Business Certification Act of 2022 has bipartisan sponsorship, from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., "it is not clear whether this bill has much chance of becoming law (a previous version of the bill was introduced in 2020, but did not advance out of committee)."
Alaska's two Republican senators, Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski, introduced a bill that would ban the import of Russian seafood products. Russia doesn't import U.S. seafood products anymore, in retaliation for sanctions Western nations imposed after Russia invaded Crimea, part of Ukraine, a region that it later annexed. The bill, which the senators announced Dec. 11 but introduced earlier this week, is called the U.S.-Russian Federation Seafood Reciprocity Act.
Ohio's two senators and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., are asking the commerce secretary and U.S. trade representative to convince Canada and Mexico "to either reduce their exports of down-stream GOES products to the United States, or utilize more U.S. GOES in the production of those products." In a letter that leaned heavily on the Commerce Department's conclusion that the import of transformer components from neighboring countries is a national security threat, they said grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES) is produced by Cleveland-Cliffs in two locations in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and supports 2,000 jobs. When a 25% tariff was imposed on steel, the market shifted so that cores, core parts and laminates became the imports for transformers, rather than the steel. Imports of GOES dropped by 56% the year after the tariffs began.
Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., told a virtual audience Feb. 9 hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations that there are more members of Congress who want to punish China or decouple from its economy than there are those who see themselves as trying to salvage the relationship.
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America is telling Congress that some of the language about Non-Vessel Operating Common Carriers (or NVOCCs) and "Ocean Transport Intermediaries" in the Ocean Shipping Act does not make sense, because these intermediaries do not control cargo placement aboard a vessel, and most of the time, they do not set detention and demurrage charges.
Almost half of the Senate's Republicans and a third of its Democrats are asking U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to open an exclusion process for all importers of Chinese goods covered by Section 301 tariffs, and to presumptively exclude any product of which nearly all the imports are coming from China. Lead authors Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., say that if importers haven't moved out of China after years of higher tariffs, that "suggests that moving these supply chains out of China is uniquely unlikely, and that our efforts to diversify production locales and reshore manufacturing would be better spent on other products."
Senators introduced a companion version of the House’s Ocean Shipping Reform Act, which would look to hold ocean carriers accountable for declining exports and other unfair shipping practices. The bipartisan bill -- introduced Feb. 3 by Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. -- would also require carriers to submit quarterly reports on total import and export tonnage per vessel and grant the Federal Maritime Commission new investigative and enforcement authorities. The House passed its version in December (see 2112080075).