Rep. Jackie Walorski, an Indiana Republican who has homed in on Commerce Department oversight on Section 232 exclusions, wrote to the agency March 3 questioning the legality of expanding the enforcement action to steel and aluminum derivative articles. “A sudden announcement on a Friday evening is not befitting such a dramatic paradigm shift from tariffs only on raw materials to now include downstream products as well,” she wrote.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters March 3 that he still wants to advance legislation that would reform Section 232 -- and he suggested that a greater congressional role might be warranted for Section 301, as well. “I want to move 232 and a number of members of my Finance Committee have talked to me about doing it,” he said, immediately adding that the bill is not an attack on President Donald Trump. He said that while the president's use of tariffs has shown Congress the shortcomings of the laws that allowed national security tariffs on steel and massive tariffs on China, his interest is in reasserting some congressional prerogatives on trade.
A bill called Stopping Harmful Offers on Platforms by Screening Against Fakes in E-Commerce (SHOP SAFE) was introduced March 2 by the chairman and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. A press release from Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., and Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., the two Republicans on the bill, said the measure would require online platforms to vet sellers, remove counterfeit listings, and remove sellers who repeatedly sell counterfeits. It would establish trademark liability for companies that sell counterfeits that put at risk consumer health or safety. And it would expose online marketplaces to “contributory liability for their actions” if they don't prevent continued sale of counterfeits by third-party sellers. The American Apparel and Footwear Association lauded the bill. CEO Steve Lamar said, “While many online marketplaces are directing increased resources towards this issue, much more needs to be done to prevent counterfeit products from unknowingly entering the homes of American families.”
The United Kingdom government emphasized that its National Health Service will not pay more for drugs as a result of a U.S.-United Kingdom free trade deal, and that Britain “will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards.” The latter seems to be a reference to sanitary standards that frustrate U.S. exporters, such as a ban on anti-bacterial washes of chicken. The government issued its negotiating objectives and an analysis of the economic benefit to the U.K. of a free trade deal in the March 2 document.
The annual U.S. Trade Agenda puts more emphasis on heralding past “America First” victories than setting up this year's agenda, but there are tidbits throughout the more-than-300-page report that give hints to what might come in trade. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said it “is hopeful that [the U.S.] can make more progress in the coming year than has been possible in prior years” in trade negotiations with the European Union.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is requesting comments on whether the set of tariff exclusions on Chinese imports on Section 301 List 1 that are set to expire May 14 (see 1905100034) should last another year, it said in a notice. The agency will start accepting comments on the extensions on March 12. The comments are due by April 12, it said. The USTR has granted extensions to only six exclusions so far (see 1912190060).
President Donald Trump said that although it is a fact that there's only one titanium sponge producer in the U.S., and that's a threat to national security, he agrees with the Commerce secretary that measures aside from restricting imports are the best way to deal with the problem. Trump made the announcement Feb. 27. Imports accounted for 68% of U.S. consumption in 2018, the year that TIMET asked for a Section 232 investigation; nearly all come from Japanese suppliers.
A Canadian government analysis of NAFTA's replacement -- known as the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement in that country -- estimates that it will increase Canadian GDP by just under 0.25% over five years. The estimate is based on comparing CUSMA to a withdrawal from NAFTA, not from the present trade deal.
CBP Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan acknowledged that the agency has not been able to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars Congress has provided to purchase non-intrusive screening equipment for ports of entry. Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., had asked: of the $182 million sent to CBP for non-intrusive inspection equipment in fiscal year 2018, the $264 million in fiscal year 2019 and the $60 million sent in the current fiscal year, how much has been spent?
The European Union's Committee on International Trade Chairman Bernd Lange, in a roundtable with trade reporters Feb. 27, said that he asked officials from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative if there's any truth to rumors that the U.S. will either pull out of the government procurement agreement at the World Trade Organization, or that it will seek to raise its bound tariffs, a process that would begin at the WTO. “I got confirmation from all stakeholders this will not happen,” said Lange, who was in Washington to talk with officials from USTR, Congress, unions and think tanks. But, he added, “sometimes decisions in the United States are taken quite quick,” so he can't be sure that answer will be true next week.