The silence from the White House on auto tariffs and a Court of International Trade ruling on 50 percent tariffs on Turkish steel (see 1911180013) has left some trade lawyers wondering whether the window has closed to levy Section 232 tariffs on European cars. The panel of judges said that the law “cabins the President's power" procedurally, because of its deadlines. The Trump administration missed its deadline of Nov. 14 last week.
When the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee held a hearing on the U.S.-Japan mini-deal, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative declined to send anyone to testify. Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., one of the biggest boosters of free trade in the Democratic caucus, said that absence represents “the disdain the current administration has" for Congress, and its role in setting trade policy. He predicted that "this will have serious ramifications for the next time" Congress has a vote on fast-track authority.
House Democrats and the administration have gotten close enough on what the edits to the new NAFTA should be that they have narrowed differences to three, “maybe two and a half," the Ways and Means Committee chairman said Nov. 21. Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., had just exited a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Neal said that at the beginning of the meeting, there were five issues separating them.
If President Donald Trump signs the bill that passed the Senate unanimously Nov. 19 and passed the House 417-1 on Nov. 20, the secretary of state will have to certify within 180 days whether Hong Kong continues to warrant special treatment under U.S. law because of its special status under Chinese rule. It also requires a report by that date on whether items exported to Hong Kong that are on export controls lists are being transshipped.
Two Democrat and two Republican senators want to give the Commerce Department the ability to add substitutable products to antidumping and countervailing duty cases, to help fight circumvention of those duties. It would only apply to nonmarket economies. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.; and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., are calling the bill, which was introduced Nov. 19, the Play By the Rules Act. They say that China violates the spirit of the law by altering products that are about to be hit with duties. “In fact, of all the anti-circumvention petitions ever filed for ‘minor alterations,’ almost 70 percent are against China," a bill explainer said. Baldwin and Capito introduced a bill with same name in last session of Congress, in 2018. It did not get any hearings or votes.
The trade war that President Donald Trump began with China 16 months ago is creating pain for businesses, but there's a deeper strategic mistake to consider, said Matthew Goodman, senior vice president for Asian economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Goodman, who was speaking during the first session in a Congressional Trade Series on Nov. 19, said, “I still don't know what the basic strategic goal is here." He said he didn't know whether the administration wants to get structural changes to China's economy, as it claims, or whether it wants to reduce the bilateral trade deficit, or to contain China's rise.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., held a press event Nov. 17 to draw attention to the problem of substandard over-the-counter drugs and topical medicines imported from China and sold at dollar stores. Schumer pointed to a Food and Drug Administration compliance letter sent to the parent company of Dollar Tree earlier in the month, which asked the corporation to identify how it would change its supply chain so that it was no longer buying from firms that are on import alerts, such as the acne treatment pads it received from Shanghai Weieyra Daily Chemicals Factory and drugs from Hangzhou Zhongbo Industrial Company.
An economics working paper found that importers are paying nearly as much for Chinese goods hit by tariffs as they did before Section 201 and 301 tariffs, which means Chinese companies are not the ones bearing the burden, contrary to President Donald Trump's claims. The Harvard University, University of Chicago and Federal Reserve Bank economists said they documented “that the tariffs were almost fully passed through to total prices paid by importers," but that doesn't mean Chinese companies aren't harmed, too. The tariffs would likely reduce the volume of U.S. purchases, even if Chinese companies are able to maintain their profit margins, they said.
Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks, the National Taxpayers Union and 16 other groups sent a letter Nov. 15 to every member of Congress urging them to reject pension reform legislation that has been talked about as a possible companion to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement implementing bill (see 1910160054). "Attaching any of them to other legislation, from must-pass appropriations to the USMCA trade agreement, is unacceptable," the groups said.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., who leads the working group negotiating with the U.S. trade representative over the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, said he anticipates that USTR Robert Lighthizer will send over text of the changes to the agreement next week. Neal said he spoke with Lighthizer Nov. 14, to tell him he'd be forwarding “a series of, we think, could be make-or-break issues, and that we hoped that he would digest them and then respond to us, fast."