Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., speaking at an event hosted by Punchbowl News, asserted he will be the next chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, not Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla.
The House-Senate compromise defense bill does not include the Inform Consumers Act, an amendment that was part of the Senate bill, which would have required that high-volume sellers online be identified and reachable. Trade groups that represent intellectual property rights holders had hoped that the bill would become law this year since it had been part of a different House package and was in the Senate bill (see 2210260087).
The top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee said Republican and Democratic staff on the committee "haven’t had extensive discussions on GSP and MTB, and won't, my sense is, as long as there’s an insistence on [linking them to renewing] Trade Adjustment Assistance."
European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager told reporters that a trade war over America's Inflation Reduction Act's discrimination against European production of EVs and EV batteries is not where Europe wants to go.
While it's not yet clear if Democrats and Republicans can agree on whether the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and Miscellaneous Tariff Bill will advance this month, House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., says he's not for the proposal to offer a partial refund while importers wait for GSP renewal. The preferences program will have been expired for two years if it does not get renewed this month. He said, "We had a nice conversation with [U.S. Trade Representative] Katherine Tai this morning. We know [renewal] should happen, and we hope it does."
Researchers at Sheffield University, who previously documented ties to Uyghur forced labor in the cotton, solar panel supply chain and luxury vinyl tile sectors, now say that international car companies could be purchasing steel and aluminum that they use in car frames, axles, bodies, engine casings, wheels and brakes from Xinjiang, and that tires, windshields, batteries, car seats, circuit boards, central control systems, safety control systems, touchscreens, transformers, inductors, connectors and wiring solutions are all touched by forced labor.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and her EU counterpart Valdis Dombrovskis reviewed their civil aircraft working group's ongoing analysis "related to Chinese non-market policies and practices in the sector, such as industrial planning and targeting, discriminatory and anti-competitive activities of State- or Party- controlled entities, State-directed purchases, financial support, and forced technology transfer policies. They also exchanged views on the long-term risks to their market-oriented sectors from China’s state-directed industrial dominance goals." Tariffs on European goods and tariffs on U.S. exports related to the Airbus-Boeing subsidy dispute were lifted in June 2021, but the U.S. said its tariffs were paused for five years as the two sides try to work out a permanent agreement on subsidies and on protecting their industries from Chinese competition that they say is a result of oversubsidization and other trade abuses.
At the first U.S.-EU Trade and Labor Dialogue, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Deputy Undersecretary of Labor for International Affairs Thea Lee and European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis talked about leveraging trade tools between the United States and the European Union to eliminate forced labor in the global economy," according to a USTR readout of the Dec. 5 meeting.
At a press conference at the end of the first day of the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that the U.S. and EU are "on track" to reach an agreement on preferencing trade in fairly traded clean steel and aluminum by next November. The two sides gave themselves that deadline when the U.S. said it was moving from tariffs on EU steel to a tariff-rate quota approach.
Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Chris Coons, D-Del, laid out parameters of a trade package they hope to get passed in the next three weeks in Congress.