Just as the U.S. trade representative declined to continue work toward a traditional free trade agreement with the U.K. begun during the previous administration, current USTR Katherine Tai announced July 14 that trade talks with Kenya will deal with trade facilitation, digital trade, science-based sanitary and phytosanitary rules and rooting out forced labor in supply chains -- not reducing tariffs on either side.
House Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and five other Democratic members of the House and two Democratic senators, have introduced a bill that would move food regulation currently in handled by FDA to a new agency in the Health and Human Services Department.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who is a key decisionmaker on what to bring to the House floor, rejected out of hand the Senate minority leader's proposal to bring the Senate China competition bill up for a vote, since negotiations between the House of Representatives and the Senate have stalled.
A Husch Blackwell partner said that although most importers have not been surprised when CBP tells them they are intending to do an intensive exam on their goods when they arrive in port over forced labor issues, his firm has had several clients whose goods were cleared, and then, in the first month after that date, CBP issues a redelivery notice.
Seven House Democrats have asked the Biden administration why three Chinese solar panel manufacturers were not put on the entity list under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, as they say consulting group Horizon Advisory has reported that the three either have ties to forced labor or have signs of using forced labor.
Republicans who are in the China package negotiations say that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's tweet that said that moving even a smaller Build Back Better bill would halt negotiations was not an empty threat. He had said that while Congress was away from Washington, at the beginning of the month (see 2207010039).
The solar safeguard agreement that Canada and the U.S. agreed to will only exempt Canadian-originating cells or panels, and it may start collecting safeguard deposits again if there is a surge in imports of panels or cells that the International Trade Commission agrees is undermining the effectiveness of the solar safeguard measure.
Mexico's Undersecretary for Foreign Trade Luz Maria de la Mora said that Mexico is working to complete the goals of the trade facilitation chapter in USMCA, so that with transparency and information sharing, even small businesses can access expedited release. De la Mora, who spoke in Spanish during a press conference in Vancouver, Canada, also attended by U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Canada's trade minister. She said that all three countries have the goal of secure borders, but also borders that allow businesses to be competitive.
An advocacy group for the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program showed that purchases of 25 products that were once covered by GSP have shifted back to China since the program's expiration.
Canada, which had exported more than $133 million worth of solar panels in 2017 before its exports were hit with the global safeguard, will no longer be subject to the 14.75% tariff on panels. The change was announced July 7, while U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai was visiting Canada for the USMCA Free Trade Commission; the memorandum of understanding marking the change will be signed July 8. Tai said the agreement "contains a mechanism to ensure that solar product imports from Canada do not undermine the existing U.S. safeguard measure on imports of solar products," and also commits Canada to prohibiting the import of solar module components made in whole or in part with forced or compulsory labor.