The Center for Data Innovation is calling for a public-private partnership with CBP to share data among brands, online marketplaces and enforcement agencies to fight the importation of counterfeits. “If it succeeds in cutting counterfeit imports by 50 percent, the Center estimates the initiative would add 15,000 to 20,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs while reducing the trade deficit,” the group said, as it announced a March 3 report fleshing out its ideas.
The administration needs to open up a fair, timely and transparent exclusions process for Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Kevin Brady said, but he doesn't know what the U.S. trade representative's timetable will be on deciding whether that will happen. He said he hopes it will be very soon. Brady, R-Texas, spoke to reporters on a conference call March 3. “One of the reasons I continue to push this administration to not simply follow through on compliance with the phase one agreement but to go further into phase two” is because once agreements are hammered out, he thinks, it will be time to begin to roll back those tariffs, he said.
The Airforwarders Association asked the Biden administration to consider “revising several regulatory ordinances that are preventing progress and inhibiting efficiency across a wide range of businesses,” it said March 3. The association, which represents more than 275 cargo companies, did not elaborate on what those regulations are. “Congress must prioritize the passage of a long-term, fully funded transportation and infrastructure bill that reauthorizes the FAST act and allows for substantial federal investment in our nation’s ports, airports, and highways,” the association told the administration. The Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, or FAST, passed in 2015 and authorized spending through fiscal year 2020, which ended last September.
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, announced he will introduce a bill that would require importers of beef, leather, palm oil, soy and cocoa to report where the commodities were produced, and to prove that the goods were not grown or grazed on illegally deforested land. The Environmental Investigation Agency, along with 28 other non-governmental organizations, also released an open letter March 3 asking Congress to enact “significant new trade rules and policy measures to support the health and well-being of the world’s forests and the people who depend on them.” They said a law like Schatz's would be a critical element, and said that commodities produced on illegally deforested land should be banned from entry into U.S. commerce. “Around half of deforestation in the tropics, where most deforestation is occurring, is the result of illegal clearance for commercial agriculture,” EIA said in a release accompanying the letter. “In addition, the production of commodities such as palm oil, cocoa, and beef is commonly linked to forced and child labor.”
The Senate Finance Committee unanimously voted March 3 to forward to the full Senate the nominations of Katherine Tai for U.S. trade representative and Wally Adeyemo for deputy treasury secretary.
Todd Owen, former executive assistant CBP commissioner who worked in the Office of Field Operations before retiring, said during a March 3 webinar that the trade community should expect to see a lot more traditional customs work over the next few years, such as missed descriptions, undervaluation, duty evasion and import safety. Owen, who is a senior trade adviser at Diaz Trade Law, also said during the webinar that he thinks stopping goods made with forced labor is going to continue to be a priority for the Biden administration. “I don’t see this going away,” he said.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President Patrick Kilbride said existing intellectual property rights “formed the legal and economic basis for an unprecedented level of highly successful collaborations between government, industry, academia” and non-governmental organizations, He said the Chamber supports the COVAX global initiative and removing regulatory barriers to boost distribution of COVID-19 vaccines but not a waiver of IP rights. Proposals to waive IP rights “are misguided and a distraction from the real work of reinforcing supply chains and assisting countries to procure, distribute and administer vaccines to billions of the world’s citizens. Diminishing intellectual property rights would make it more difficult to quickly develop and distribute vaccines or treatments in the future pandemics the world will face,” Kilbride said in a statement issued March 2.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said March 2 that he hasn't yet gone over Katherine Tai's written answers after her hearing but that he expects to vote for her confirmation as U.S. trade representative. Although he didn't work with Tai personally on USMCA, he said his team did so and “had nothing but good things to say about her.” Grassley said he doesn't expect to be able to tell how trade policy is going to unfold from the written answers (see 2103010026). “I think she’ll be approved a long time before we know exactly how” President Joe Biden's “administration is going to handle U.K.” negotiations, if it's going rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership, “what they’re going to do in regard to China, what they’re going to do in sub-Saharan Africa, like [President Donald] Trump was starting with Kenya,” he said during a conference call with reporters. “I think you’re going to get well into the middle of the year before you see any direction.”
Two and a half years after the first Section 301 tariffs went on what ultimately covered the vast majority of imports from China, most of the public lobbying is about renewing exclusions, or offering another round of exclusion applications to be submitted. Lawyers and advocates differ on how they think lobbying will develop over the course of 2021, as President Joe Biden gets his trade team in place. Dan Ujczo, senior counsel at Thompson Hine, said he thinks the focus on exclusions is because businesses have gotten the message on 301s from the administration, which he described as: “brace for these to be around. These aren’t going away anytime soon.”
The Biden administration is emphasizing the need to fight forced labor and exploitative labor conditions, as well as using trade to fight climate change, in the first Trade Agenda published since President Joe Biden took office.