Panelists discussing the rise of protectionism in the U.S. disagreed on whether the decline in manufacturing jobs in the aughts was primarily due to trade, and whether a decline in manufacturing is something to be concerned about at all.
Although the IRS has no ability to push out the deadlines for battery or vehicle assembly in North America, or the deadlines for sourcing critical minerals domestically or from FTA partners, it is seeking comments on how to determine where assembly was done, and how to define value, all of which may make it easier or harder for electric vehicles to qualify for consumer tax credits.
Florida lawmakers who have asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to start a Section 301 investigation on unfair support for Mexican produce exports are forum shopping after "prior U.S. government investigations have found that Mexican imports have not injured that segment of the U.S. industry," wrote 24 trade groups, mostly agriculture exporters, but also the National Retail Federation and Retail Industry Leaders Association.
The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and 36 other House Republicans are calling on the administration to include Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, to expeditiously finalize provisions in the U.S.-Taiwan Trade and Investment Framework, and to negotiate a free trade agreement with Taiwan as soon as possible. The bill, introduced Sept. 28, is called the Taiwan Policy Act. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas said, "Deterrence is key to stopping the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] from provoking a conflict that would seriously harm U.S. national security.”
Two House Republicans, including the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to the CBP commissioner to ask him to explain how CBP screens products containing Chinese critical minerals, and to detail "the methodologies used to gather intelligence about forced labor in critical mineral supply chains and whether you believe these methodologies are sufficient?"
More than a dozen amendments involving trade have been proposed for the National Defense Authorization Act, a bill the Senate passes every year, and is expected to take up in a lame-duck session after the November election.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., followed up on a letter asking for flexibility on electric vehicle tax credits with a bill that would phase in the sourcing and manufacturing requirements linked to credits.
A bill that temporarily lifts a 13.6% tariff plus $1.035/kg tariff on base powder that's an input to baby formula passed both the House and Senate on Sept. 29, just three days after it was introduced in the House by Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and the subcommittee's top Republican, Adrian Smith, R-Neb., along with others (see 2209260058). It passed the House with a voice vote and passed the Senate unanimously.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., recently suggested that executive action for a carbon border adjustment tax might be more achievable than passing a bill through Congress. Whitehouse, who has sponsored a CBA, was invited to speak at a virtual forum hosted by Bruegel, a European think tank that analyzes the economics of policy questions.
The Department of Labor's annual report on forced labor and child labor describes a global problem, from garments in Bangladesh, Brazil, Vietnam and Malaysia to tea and thread in India to gold from Venezuela, in addition to the sectors already associated with withhold release orders.