Mexico announced that it will examine whether the Panasonic Automotive Systems plant in Reynosa violated the rights of its workers (see 2205180061) under the provisions of the USMCA.
Four Republican senators, led by Roger Marshall of Kansas, asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai "to develop and begin executing a strategic plan for the long-term stability of fertilizer trade," because China, Russia and Belarus are unreliable trading partners for phosphates and potash. In a May 31 letter, the senators said the antidumping duties on Moroccan phosphates and the pending tariffs on urea ammonium nitrate from Trinidad and Tobago are only making the crunch worse. "Currently, 36% of the global tradable supply of phosphate fertilizers is not subject to U.S. duties," they wrote. "To believe these problems are only short-term is short-sighted. Even if the war in Ukraine would end tomorrow, our relations with Russia will take decades to heal and may never be the same. Western countries with fertilizer supply problems will be competing for fertilizer from 'friendly' countries."
The National Council of Textile Organizations is arguing that the yarn-forward rule for the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement must be retained, because it is driving what it calls "massive investment" in the countries in Central America. The letter it sent to Vice President Kamala Harris on May 31 is timed to her attendance at the Summit of the Americas, and recognizes her role to try to mitigate the poverty and corruption that leads Central Americans to migrate to the U.S. without visas.
The removal of Ukraine from the countries whose steel exports face 25% tariffs, announced in early May (see 2205090041), will take effect on June 1. A presidential proclamation said Ukrainian steel that is in foreign-trade zones and entered under foreign privileged status will still face 25% Section 232 tariffs when it enters into commerce after that date. The break from national security tariffs will last one year, the proclamation said.
Just three weeks before the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act will go into effect, many important questions remain unanswered, said Richard Mojica, a former CBP headquarters attorney now with Miller & Chevalier.
An aggressive timeline that aims to file a conference report by June 21 for the House and Senate China packages has lobbyists speculating that none of the proposals in the trade titles will be in the final bill because the two chambers are too far apart. The two chambers have relatively similar renewals of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and a big difference in their renewals of the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill. Each chamber has proposals the other doesn't, such as directing the administration to reopen Section 301 exclusions (Senate only); changing antidumping and countervailing duty laws (House only); removing China's eligibility for de minimis benefits (House only); and renewing and expanding Trade Adjustment Assistance (House only).
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai hailed a new contract between General Motors and the union workers chose in Silao, Mexico, saying it will raise wages. "Because of the ground-breaking labor protections in the USMCA, we’ve seen that workers no longer have to tolerate contracts negotiated behind their backs and have the right to vote on an agreement after it's negotiated," she said in a statement. "The USMCA’s Rapid Response Labor Mechanism helped workers get to this vote, and the United States will continue to work with Mexico to protect worker rights.”
A group of lawmakers is calling the outcry around the anticircumvention case on solar panels made in Southeast Asia "an attempt to undermine the integrity of our trade enforcement laws and the independence of our federal workforce."
Almost 40 agricultural trade groups, along with two port and perishable logistics trade groups, asked the U.S. trade representative to reduce, lift or suspend tariffs so that China would lift its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. crops. “Tariff relief could not come at a more important time,” the trade groups said in a letter. “Rural America and small businesses are facing significant challenges due to the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, logistical and supply chain disruptions, record levels of inflation, and the increasing impacts of Russia’s war on Ukraine. "
Six Republican and three Democratic senators are urging President Joe Biden "to substantially maintain the tariffs in their current form," though they also said in a letter that exclusions are necessary for importers who cannot buy from elsewhere, but said Biden shouldn't lift or reduce tariff rates, because that would reduce U.S. leverage to address Chinese economic abuses.