A handful of House members, led by Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., introduced legislation to ban the import of uranium from Russia, as a response to the invasion of Ukraine. The bill follows the introduction of a similar ban from the Senate earlier in March (see 2203170061).
Deep in the White House budget proposal, the administration projects that after collecting $93 billion in duties in the current fiscal year, only $54 billion will be collected between Oct. 1 and Sept. 30, 2023. It projects collections would drop further to $46 billion in fiscal year 2024 before gradually climbing to $60 billion in 2032. Last year's budget projected that there would only be $57 billion in duties collected in this fiscal year, and $45 billion next fiscal year.
A senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute says U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai "seems unable to persuade the White House" to fashion new tools to confront China, and complains that if the administration has postponed a second Section 301 investigation, that's a mistake.
The top trade official on the European Commission said that Russia's barbaric invasion of Ukraine revealed how important it was that he and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai "spent last year fixing some aspects of U.S.-EU relations," and then moved to a forward-looking agenda with the Trade and Technology Council. Tai, who spoke remotely to the Brussels business audience hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in the EU on March 24, called EC Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis a good friend.
Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, introduced the Preventing Labor Union Slowdowns (Plus) Act, which would revise the National Labor Relations Act to define a labor slowdown by port unions as an unfair labor practice. It also would change the labor law to say that labor unions' negotiations against port automation are an unfair labor practice.
A leading voice in the House behind the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act introduced a bipartisan bill that would remove permanent normal trade relations from China and instead would require annual affirmations from the administration that "the Chinese government is making serious and sustained improvement in respecting human rights" in order to retain most-favored-nation tariffs.
After the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative agreed to reinstate 64% of expired Section 301 tariff exclusions (see 2203230070), business interests said it should go further, while the Coalition for a Prosperous America said the decision was wrongheaded.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., complained in a floor speech that Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, blocked unanimous consent to move to debate and a vote on revoking permanent normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus.
Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C., introduced a bill that would increase tariffs an additional 20% on Chinese exports in Sections I through III of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule -- which includes Chapters 1-15 -- if China increases the amount of wheat and barley it's importing from Russia. The bill, released March 22, has no co-sponsors. "By allowing an increase of its purchases of Russian agricultural products, China could effectively be giving a financial lifeline to the Putin regime," Budd said in a news release. "This bill would act as a warning to the Chinese Communist Party that continuing their economic partnership with Russia will have grave consequences.”
A dozen trade groups sent Congress a letter saying changes to antidumping duty and countervailing duty laws, colloquially known as Leveling the Playing Field 2.0, shouldn't be part of the compromise between the respective House and Senate China packages. Though the legislation originated in the Senate, it was inserted into the House trade title of the America Competes Act.