A wide variety of trade groups told the Commerce Department that while they know the administration doesn't intend to tackle tariffs as part of its negotiations with Asian countries, they think offering to lower tariffs on U.S. goods would be the best way to get ambitious commitments in the region, and many said reconsidering the re-named Trans-Pacific Partnership is better than the conceived Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.
Academics and human rights organization employees are concerned about trade groups' requests at a public hearing on the implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
The Democratic and Republican leadership in the House of Representatives selected members to serve on a massive conference committee with the goal of working out a compromise between the Senate and House visions for a China package. The trade titles of the two bills diverge significantly, and the members who will represent House points of view on trade are:
Congress passed a bill that will end permanent normal trade relations status for Russian and Belarusian goods, with a unanimous vote in the Senate and a 420-3 vote in the House. It also codified the already accomplished ban on Russian fossil fuels, unanimously in the Senate and 413-9 in the House.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce continues to argue against including rewrites to antidumping duty and countervailing duty laws, and calls for tariff relief, John Murphy, the lead advocate on trade for the group, blogged about their trade priorities.
A bill that would create an assistant secretary for trade and economic security in the Department of Homeland Security passed the House of Representatives on April 5 by a 348-74 vote.The bill also would establish an interagency council to identify concentrated risks for trade and economic security, meaning the condition of having "resilient domestic production capacity combined with reliable access to the global resources necessary to maintain an acceptable standard of living and protect core national values"
Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced a bill that would mandate country of origin labeling on beef only if it was born, raised and slaughtered in the U.S., the second-such bill Khanna has introduced during this Congress. Gooden said, “American cattle ranchers are being undercut by foreign competition because current labeling standards allow imported beef to be marked as made in the United States if it is only packaged here. Our trade policies should promote American-made beef and put the hard-working cattle ranchers in the United States first.” He announced the bill on March 30.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said it would be good if the House and Senate could name their respective conferees to the committee that will aim to hash out a compromise between the two chambers' China packages. He said the next two weeks, when Congress will not be in Washington, could be put to good use by the members. But Hoyer suggested the House will wait until the Senate passes its motion to go to conference, and gives its negotiating instructions.
After passing the House 424-8 more than two weeks ago, a bill to end permanent normal trade relations status with Russia and Belarus remains hung up in the Senate. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., objected to the language renewing Magnitsky sanctions that is attached to the bill (see 2203290057).
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, suggested that a provision in the Senate China package that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative must establish an exclusion process would garner bipartisan support across both chambers.