The top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said he doesn't think the chatter among lobbyists that the trade title could be dropped from a compromise China package has any merit (see 2205310033). Lobbyists were reacting to a leaked timeline that said the negotiations should be finished, and the new legislative language done, by June 21. The House is scheduled to leave Washington for two weeks at the end of the day on June 24.
A week before U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai heads to Geneva for the World Trade Organization's ministerial conference, she said she's excited for what the meeting could bring, though she avoided predicting that either an intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines would be approved, or that the 20-year fisheries negotiations would be closed.
The U.S. has brought another rapid response request, this time over an alleged violation of worker rights at the Teksid Hierro de Mexico plant in Frontera, Mexico. According to the parent company's website, the plant makes iron castings used in heavy trucks made by Volvo, Cummins, Mack Trucks and others. The owner of the company is Stellantis, the conglomerate that owns the Chrysler brand.
Even if the Commerce Department finds that solar panels from Southeast Asia are circumventing antidumping and countervailing duty actions against Chinese exports, no AD/CVD will be collected for the next two years, the Biden administration announced on June 6. Trade lawyers were astonished by the action, which is based on the authority to temporarily suspend AD/CVD when imports are needed to respond to natural disasters "or other emergencies."
The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill along party lines the evening of June 2 that aims to improve gun safety and restrict the sale of ghost guns, bump stocks and large capacity magazines. The bill establishes "a new federal offense for the import, sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of a large capacity magazines, with exceptions for certain law enforcement uses," the committee said.
A panel of industry, trade group representatives and a customs broker disagreed on the proper approach to changing domestic de minimis policy, or even if it should be changed, but agreed that it's perverse that warehouses in Canada and Mexico are serving as way stations for small packages destined for U.S. consumers.
The Federal Railroad Administration is going to spend $368 million across 46 projects, some of which are aimed at strengthening supply chains, it said. "Americans deserve a world-class rail system that allows people and goods to get where they need to go more quickly and affordably, while reducing traffic and pollution on our roads," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. "We're proud to award these grants to improve passenger rail for riders and strengthen the freight rail that makes our supply chains and our economy work."
A trade group that includes eBay, Etsy, Poshmark and Pinterest, called the Coalition to Protect America's Small Sellers (PASS), is arguing that the INFORM Act belongs in the China package, but the SHOP SAFE Act does not. "While INFORM and SHOP SAFE seem similar they both are very different pieces of legislation, and most importantly, have conflicting disclosure and verification requirements for sellers," the group wrote in a June 2 letter sent to the leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.
A bipartisan bill was recently introduced that would codify the executive action on formula importation (see 2205260032) and which invites the administration to suspend tariffs on baby formula and formula ingredients.
A recent Congressional Research Service report on the phase one deal with China notes that there has been little discussion about how to enforce what China agreed to, and how to address issues that phase one didn't touch but were highlighted in the Section 301 report.