The U.S. Chamber of Commerce objects to legislation meant to update antidumping and countervailing duty laws, it said in a letter to leadership of House Ways and Means Committee and its Trade Subcommittee. Soon after the Chamber sent its letter, lawmakers introduced the House version of the Eliminating Global Market Distortions to Protect American Jobs Act, the legislation that the Chamber has concerns about. "The Chamber opposes this bill, which has not been subject to the scrutiny and deliberation required for a complex, far-reaching measure amending U.S. AD/CVD laws," the Chamber said. "This major overhaul of U.S. trade laws could add to inflationary pressures by raising costs for a wide variety of goods, including many products sourced from U.S. allies and partners."
More than 20 Democrats this week urged House leadership to consider a range of bills that they said can help ease supply chain backlogs and port issues. In a Dec. 2 letter, the lawmakers said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., should “turn the House’s attention” to those bills as the holiday season approaches “to specifically address the supply chain and resulting higher prices experienced by families across the country.”
More than 50 technology and auto companies urged congressional leaders to fund the CHIPS for America Act and pass a “strengthened version” of the Facilitating American Built Semiconductors Act, saying they would provide a much-needed boost to the U.S. semiconductor industry amid the global chip shortage. The companies -- including Apple, Microsoft, Ford, IBM and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) -- said chip demand has “outstripped supply, creating a global chip shortage and resulting in lost growth and jobs in the economy.” It has also “exposed vulnerabilities in the semiconductor supply chain,” they said, which has highlighted the need for a more robust chip manufacturing base in the U.S.
The Congressional Research Service published a report dated Nov. 10 on the supply chain issues at U.S. ports, detailing disruptions to customs processes, container flows and more. It also describes the range of port inefficiencies being faced by traders and forwarders, including equipment and driver shortages, container fees, and “inadequate” Department of Transportation data collection efforts on detention time that could have been used "for considering policy changes."
The Trade Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee will hold a virtual hearing Dec. 2 at 10 a.m. EST called “Supporting U.S. Workers, Businesses, and the Environment in the Face of Unfair Chinese Trade Practices." No witnesses have been announced.
Nine liberal senators, led by Democrats Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, want the U.S. to push Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the European Union to agree to an Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver at the World Trade Organization, so that COVID-19 vaccine production can accelerate in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Democratic Reps. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, the head of the Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee, and Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, who heads the Trade Subcommittee, asked CBP how much postal service delays "may impact CBP operations and the disbursement of overpayments of duties, taxes, and fees." Such delays "may have devastating impacts on Americans who are waiting patiently for overpayment refunds," Pascrell said in a news release Nov. 24. "Any delays of CBP refunds cannot be tolerated and so our subcommittees want to head off any possible problems."
The top Republicans on the Senate Finance and the House Ways and Means committees asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to "start a concrete conversation about which reforms" would address the U.S. concerns about the World Trade Organization's appellate body, so that binding dispute reform can return to Geneva. They also said that the Nov. 30-Dec. 3 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) could be an opportunity to end the paralysis at the WTO.
Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., want to radically expand the Buy America concept so that no goods determined "critical for American national security or the protection of the U.S. industrial base" could be sold in the U.S. if they weren't at least 50.1% domestic content. Currently, federal purchases under Buy America means goods must have 55% American content unless the goods are not available in commercial quantities, or the cost of sourcing domestically would increase the cost of the procurement by 25% or more.
A Senate bill would authorize several recommendations recently made by the Federal Maritime Commission to address issues in the international freight delivery system, including unfair detention and demurrage fees. The bill, introduced last week, would also seek to standardize shipping terminology among port users and require the government to produce more statistics on equipment dwell times.