The social spending and climate response bill known as Build Back Better has been scaled back to satisfy concerns of two Senate moderate Democrats, and as a result, many of the original pay-fors are gone, including a limitation on tobacco drawback and a plan to tax the nicotine in vaping cartridges.
ITC Can Protect Trademarks, Not Just Patents, Panel Says; Also Hope for Anti-Counterfeit Legislation
With too many small packages to inspect, and Instagram and other social media influencers promoting knockoffs, fashion brands are dealing with a challenging environment. But panelists on a Crowell & Moring webinar Oct. 26 called "The Year of the Knockoff" found some reason for hope.
Nominees for the envoy to the World Trade Organization whose rank is at a deputy level in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and the first-ever deputy USTR for Innovation and Intellectual Property, avoided specifics when questioned by Senate Finance Committee members on WTO negotiations. But Maria Pagán and Chris Wilson assured the senators that they understand what their views are and that their issues are also priorities for the administration.
Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for the Western Hemisphere Daniel Watson and Andrés Cárdenas Muñoz, Colombia's vice minister of foreign trade, directed their customs and trade facilitation teams to have another discussion on lessons learned and future plans "especially with regard to the digitalization of customs procedures," according to a USTR readout of the Oct. 22 meeting.
Although it's not known what sort of electric vehicle purchase incentives might be included in Build Back Better legislation, Canada and Mexico are arguing to congressional leaders that offering larger tax credits for U.S.-assembled electric vehicles hurts both the integrated North American auto industry and undermines the USMCA.
Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., opened up a discussion on a recent report on targeted decoupling based on risk, with a focus on artificial intelligence, at a virtual event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Oct. 22. Hill said the discussion was "long overdue," and that China's direction is "squarely in conflict with the global order, balance of power in East Asia, and the continued open, market-based trading system."
The House Ethics Committee unanimously found that "there is substantial reason to believe" that Rep. Mike Kelly's wife purchased at least $15,000 worth of stock in Cleveland-Cliffs based on non-public information about a Section 232 investigation into the import of laminations for stacked cores for incorporation into transformers, stacked and wound cores for incorporation into transformers, electrical transformers, and transformer regulators. The Kellys live in Butler, Pennsylvania, where about 1,400 people work for the steel company, making electrical steel. The company had repeatedly argued that unless the 25% tariffs on steel were extended to these downstream products, it would have to close the Butler plant.
Corruption, poor logistics and overly strict rules of origin are all barriers to Mexico benefiting from companies' decisions to diversify out of China, a panel of experts from Mexico and the U.S. said. Luis de la Calle, a former Mexican trade official who worked on implementing NAFTA and who represented Mexico at the World Trade Organization, said Mexican leaders have a lack of vision to take advantage of this moment, and he said they are also hobbled by what he called "ideological incompetence."
Eleven of the 49 Democratic senators have told U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai that the inputs for manufacturing protective gowns and masks and finished masks and surgical gowns should not continue to receive exclusions to Section 301 duties. The previous administration decided that goods needed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic should not face higher tariffs, but these senators, led by Ohio's Sen. Sherrod Brown and Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin, argue that domestic manufacturers need the tariff barrier to be competitive.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, speaking at a virtual trade ministers meeting of African Growth and Opportunity Act participants, said that while AGOA improved the export competitiveness of many African products and fostered regional integration, its utilization of it has been limited. She said at the Oct. 20 meeting: "Despite these successes, only a handful of countries have taken significant advantage of AGOA.