Slightly more than half of senators want language instructing the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to reopen a broad exclusion process for China tariffs to make it into the compromise China package, according to a late-night vote May 4. Unlike most votes in Congress, support did not break down mostly along party lines. One independent who caucuses with Democrats and 23 Democrats, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., voted for the motion to instruct negotiators to include the language in the final bill; 29 Republicans, also voted for it, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Indiana's Todd Young, one of the original movers to get the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., asked for the motion, and he is also on the conference committee to blend USICA and the House China package. There were four senators absent from the vote.
Hours before the Senate was due to consider his non-binding instruction to negotiators on the China package to retain language directing the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to reopen a Section 301 exclusion process, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., warned that if USTR didn't open such a process if the language becomes law, he would see that as a misuse of power.
A letter sent by 23 trade associations and about 250 companies asks congressional leaders to renew the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program at least through Jan. 1, 2027, and to reform the competitive need limitations.
A bipartisan letter led by Ohio's two senators, and signed by 14 other senators across the ideological spectrum, asks Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to reclassify Russia as a non-market economy, which would affect how its goods are treated under antidumping laws. "In its 2002 decision classifying Russia as a market economy, the Department of Commerce noted that economic decentralization was the 'hallmark of market economies,'" the letter said. But, now the senators said, "According to Russian government sources, the state’s share in the Russian economy may be as high as 70 percent. This growth of economic intervention by the Russian government tracks the rapid expansion of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in Russia. According to the International Monetary Fund, Russia has the third most SOEs per capita in the world." They also said that the ruble is not freely convertible, another one of the six criteria for determining if a country is a market economy.
The U.K. has removed tariffs on Ukrainian goods, and the EU is considering doing the same, including suspending antidumping and safeguard measures against Ukranian steel. The U.S. should follow suit, Mary Kate Carter, U.S. Chamber of Commerce coordinator for international policy, wrote May 2. Ukraine exported $1.9 billion in goods to the U.S. last year, and almost half was pig iron, which is already tariff-free. But sunflower oil, another major export from Ukraine to the U.S., does face duties. The U.S. is a small market for Ukraine, representing less than 3% of its exports, she said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released a notice May 3 that asks companies that benefit from the Section 301 tariffs on List 1 to tell USTR if they think the tariffs should continue. They can comment May 7 to July 5. Companies that benefit from the tariffs on List 2 can comment June 24 to Aug. 22.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released a notice asking if any companies that benefited from the Section 301 tariffs would like those tariffs continue. If no company benefited, the tariffs would end July 6, said the agency. If requests for continuation are submitted, the USTR will review the tariffs. During that review, opponents to the tariffs will also have the opportunity to be heard, it said. Another notice will be posted after July 6, the four-year anniversary of the tariffs on Chinese imports.
A third of the Democratic caucus in the Senate asked President Joe Biden to expedite an investigation into antidumping and countervailing duty circumvention by solar panel manufacturers in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, if they use Chinese components. The letter, made public on May 2, was led by Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., who made the same arguments to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo when she appeared before the Commerce Committee (see 2204270041).
Florida's two U.S. senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, introduced a bill that would require publicly traded companies to report any transactions with Chinese companies on the entity list or that are designated as military-industrial complex companies, and report their sourcing and due diligence activities for supply chains if their imported products have been "directly linked to products utilizing forced labor from Xinjiang, China." The senators, both Republican, announced the bill April 29, and said they have four other Republican co-sponsors.
More than 200 companies, along with local and national trade groups are asking congressional leaders to make sure that the renewal of the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill reimburses importers for tariffs paid on MTB products back to Jan. 1, 2021.