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.
Importers are hoping that the guidance from the federal government on how to comply with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act will help identify Chinese firms that are outside of Xinjiang but employ Uyghur or other minority Muslim workers through China's "poverty alleviation" programs. Goods from those factories will be presumed to be made with forced labor, but customs advisers from KPMG said identifying that nexus to forced labor in your supply chain is even more challenging than seeing if you have Xinjiang inputs several tiers down in your supply chain.
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and three Republican senators introduced the China Trade Cheating Restitution Act to require CBP to pay interest on distributions of antidumping duties and countervailing duties to injured parties under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act, which applies to entries made before Sept. 30, 2007. For imports that entered since FY 2008 began, injured parties have not been allowed to receive money collected on antidumping or countervailing duties. The Senate bill, introduced March 30, is a companion to one introduced in December in the House (see 2112140032).
The Ocean Shipping Reform Act, which aims to end unreasonable detention and demurrage and make ocean carriers accept more exports, passed the Senate by a voice vote on March 31.
Senators on the committee that oversees trade pressed U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai repeatedly on why the administration isn't engaged in negotiations with other countries to get them to lower their tariffs, so that U.S. exporters, particularly agricultural producers, can gain more market share. Both Democrats and Republicans questioned the decision to pursue the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework as something other than a traditional free trade agreement,
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai endorsed the Level the Playing Act during a four-hour hearing in front of the House Ways and Means Committee after one of its House sponsors noted the House and the Senate are about to go to conference, and the proposal to rewrite antidumping duty and countervailing duty laws is going to be on the table.
Sen. John Thune, the South Dakota Republican who serves as his party's top vote-counter, told reporters at the Capitol that a bill to remove permanent normal trade relations status from Russia is stalled in the Senate over one Republican's disagreement on the Magnitsky Act renewal. He said that Democrats are negotiating with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on the language he wants regarding the Magnitsky Act. "They're still trying to negotiate, and hopefully they'll be able to find a path forward, but as of right now, it's hung up, and I don't see that busting loose this week, and next week is the Supreme Court [nomination vote], so it doesn't look like anything's likely to happen on that until after the Easter break."