Thompson Hine trade attorney Dan Ujczo expects the only activity on trade in the first eight months of Joe Biden's presidency will be on issues either so small that they don't make a splash -- such as the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program -- or on issues that have an immediate need for action.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has warmly endorsed Katherine Tai to be U.S. trade representative. In a letter sent Feb. 23, Executive Vice President Myron Brilliant said her experience at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and as chief trade counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee, is invaluable. “She combines policy acumen, negotiating experience, and political savvy,” he wrote. “While one important aspect of USTR’s mission is to address unfair trading practices, the previous Administration’s dramatic expansion in the application of tariffs contributed directly to a manufacturing and agriculture recession well in advance of the [COVID-19] pandemic, and this experience illustrates the perils of an excessive reliance on tariffs. The next USTR must avoid the use of tariffs as a blunt instrument, and must avoid inaction on trade agreements as well,” he said, adding that Tai understands that.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the U.S. trade representative nominee has “really extraordinary skill in bringing people together,” and that it's critical to confirm her, deputy Treasury secretary nominee Wally Adeyemo, and the Health and Human Services secretary, so they can get to work. Wyden, who spoke with reporters Feb. 22, didn't spend much time on trade issues, but he said he thinks Katherine Tai is “going to do a first-rate job” heading the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said that a year ago, he would not have agreed with the European proposal to drop the Airbus/Boeing tariffs on both sides, to create space for negotiations to settle the case. “But with this administration trying to open things up with Europe and having a more multilateral approach to trade ... anything we can do to reduce tensions between Europe and the United States should be done,” he told International Trade Today during a call with reporters Feb. 23.
Senators from both parties asked deputy Treasury secretary nominee Wally Adeyemo about how the U.S. can negotiate with other countries on digital services taxes. There's a negotiation process in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and most countries with tax proposals are waiting to collect the tax to see if there can be a global solution. But during the last administration, the U.S. trade representative threatened to hike tariffs on imports from countries such as France to convince them not to levy these sorts of taxes.
U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt told Yahoo Finance reporters that if the Section 232 tariffs were removed, his industry could suffer. The tariffs “were necessary,” he said. “The steel that would come from China -- the illegal steel that would come from China -- would find its way into Europe and then into the U.S.,” he said Feb. 19. If the tariffs were lifted, he said, steel that purportedly came from Europe could actually be from Asia. “I think it's too soon to take off the 232 [tariffs]. We need to make sure we can take care of the United States again,” he said. When the U.S. lifted Section 232 tariffs on Canada and Mexico, those countries agreed to anti-circumvention measures.
Even though a Section 301 investigation on Vietnamese currency manipulation found there was cause to believe the practice is burdening U.S. business (see 2101150046), Crowell & Moring lawyer Michael Bowen said the firm does not assign much additional risk to imports from Vietnam based on its currency practices. “Let’s call it ‘low-medium’ for now,” Bowen said in an email following up on a Feb. 17 Crowell & Moring webinar (see 2102170038). He said not only did the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative choose not to impose any tariffs in January at the time of its finding, it also “failed to signal any imminent measures in its notice.” Bowen also noted that the first time Commerce used currency undervaluation as a countervailable subsidy, on passenger tires, it was an average of 1.4% across the two companies under review. This “showed this may be more bark than bite for importers.”
Reps. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Chris Smith, R-N.J., led the reintroduction of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would create a rebuttable presumption that goods made in China's Xinjiang region are made with forced labor, and therefore banned from entry. Five other House members -- three Democrats and two Republicans -- also sponsored. In the news release announcing the Feb. 18 reintroduction, McGovern said, “We have watched in horror as the Chinese government first created, and then expanded a system of extrajudicial mass internment camps targeting Uyghurs and Muslim minorities.” The bill passed the House in the last Congress 406-3. This is a companion to the Senate bill introduced in January (see 2101290045).
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said that since the International Trade Commission ruled no safeguards are necessary for blueberries, some importers think they no longer have to pay the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service blueberry fee, which funds research and promotion of U.S. blueberries. “The ITC decision not to restrict or penalize blueberry imports does not in any way change the requirement for importers to pay the blueberry fee to the USDA,” the group said in its latest members' newsletter.
In a recent expansion on the cost of a rule on imports of computers, telecom equipment, robots, drones and other electronics, the Commerce Department estimated that the six nations named as foreign adversaries were responsible for more than half of U.S. imports of those goods. Commerce earlier estimated that the total cost of the regulation could be as high as $20 billion (see 2101150055), and that remains, but they broke it down into the cost to learn about the rule, the cost to develop a compliance plan, the cost for annual compliance, and the cost of compliance with investigations.