House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., joined by 14 Democrats on the committee, is asking that the Biden administration develop an action plan to improve the working conditions of Haitian migrant workers in the sugar industry in the Dominican Republic, including potentially banning the import of that sugar under the ban on goods made with forced labor.
Eight Republicans and two Democrats introduced a bill in the Senate that would prohibit the Agriculture Department from administering a rule on the importation of sheep and goats (see 1607150025). The rule was first proposed in 2016, and the final rule was announced Dec. 2 (see 2112020022). Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and his co-sponsors introduced the bill a week later, and its text was recently published. A bipartisan House companion bill, with 17 sponsors and co-sponsors, was also introduced in December.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said that he and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., talked Jan. 12 about how to move on a renewal for the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill. Neal, who spoke with International Trade Today in a hallway interview at the Capitol Jan. 13, said that he talked with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai about the legislation this week, as well. Both the GSP and MTB lapsed more than a year ago.
The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee and that committee's chairman, as well as the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, urged the deputy U.S. trade representative to press Mexico and Canada on market access issues for the energy and agricultural sectors, and the senators also complained about barriers for the telecom, pharmaceutical and television industries in either Mexico or Canada. Deputy USTR Jayme White is meeting with Canadian and Mexican counterparts this week.
Agricultural and energy market access in Mexico are of concern to Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, as he talks about the need to enforce USMCA's provisions, but he dismissed Mexico's concern that the U.S. is not following the treaty's text as it lays out rules for imported automobiles and light trucks to enter the U.S. tariff-free.
Center for a New American Security Senior Fellow Emily Kilcrease asked Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., co-sponsor of a bill asking the Biden administration to come up with a strategy to counter China's economic coercion, (see 2110180036), how he'd like to see the U.S. respond to economic coercion from China. Should we hike tariffs? Offer direct assistance to affected companies? Make a statement?
All the Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee, led by ranking member Mike Crapo of Idaho, are questioning the administration's decision to trade off extraterritorial taxation of U.S.-headquartered companies (Pillar One) in exchange for a global minimum corporate income tax (Pillar Two) and the removal of digital services taxes.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., added his voice to Rep. Karen Bass's request that the Biden administration not let Ethiopia be kicked out of the African Growth and Opportunity Act as a beneficiary country on Jan. 1. He and Bass, D-Calif., wrote, “While we absolutely condemn the human rights abuses that have taken place on both sides of this conflict, we are concerned that suspension of AGOA benefits will be counterproductive and disproportionately harm the most vulnerable Ethiopians without contributing to the cessation of hostilities.”
Fourteen pro-trade House Democrats are asking Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to quickly advance discussions on how tariffs on Japanese and British steel and aluminum could be lifted. "[D]ownstream users continue to face astonishingly high prices in steel and aluminum," wrote the group, which is led by Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington state.
The head of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, along with Reps. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., introduced the National Critical Capabilities Defense Act, which would require that companies report when they send supply chains of critical goods to "adversaries" such as China. The bill is a companion bill to one introduced earlier in the year by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. The information would go to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Commerce Department and the Defense Department. Committee Chair Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. said, "The COVID-19 pandemic and semiconductor shortages exposed that critical United States supply chains were not up to the task of robustly responding to America’s needs. We have to learn from our mistakes and cannot allow outbound investments from the United States to take critical supply chains overseas and into the hands of our adversaries such as China or Russia. Companies at a minimum should be required to report on their proposed offshoring of supply chains so the United States can better protect critical manufacturing capacity here at home and safeguard American workers and our national, economic, and health security."