The European Union and the U.S. working together have the leverage to change China's distortions in the world economy, experts speaking during a three-day series on EU-U.S. trade issues said. But it's not easy, with the economic interests of German manufacturers in China, the history of trade tensions across the Atlantic, and bureaucratic torpor on both sides, they said.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced a bill that would require a study of whether Canadian and Mexican manufacturers are able to get tariff breaks on non-North American inputs to their goods, and if so, does that affect the cost-competitiveness of products manufactured in the U.S. for domestic and export markets. Cornyn led an unsuccessful effort to convince the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in 2020 that goods produced inside foreign-trade zones should be treated as products of the U.S. (see 2012020031).
World Trade Organization Deputy Director-General Angela Ellard focused on the positive in her keynote speech to the American Association of Exporters and Importers, even as she recognized the strain the COVID-19 pandemic put on trade and the rise in protectionism in recent years.
A senior U.S. Chamber of Commerce official submitted follow-up comments on rapid response petitions, complaining that a petition is in a state that is not yet required to complete its ratification or rejection of union contracts, and that an alleged violation happened in part before July 1, 2020, when the USMCA went into force. The Chamber said this petition that comes before the deadline “carries the potential to set a dangerous precedent.” Glenn Spencer, senior vice president in the employment policy division, wrote to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative June 23, saying that “[t]he possibility of imposing remedies on a facility for failure to comply with the USMCA before the USMCA entered into force is a violation of the right to due process and should not be tolerated.” He also said that the owner of a facility that is being investigated for a denial of rights “must be included in consultation and remediation efforts resulting from a review.”
Members of the House of Representatives objected to 50 products that were part of the Senate's Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, and the lion's share of the items removed in the House versions of MTB were shoes and apparel. Although the competing bills from Republicans and Democrats differ on the MTB policy, their lists are the same.
Republican Rep. Mo Brooks, who has former President Donald Trump's endorsement in the 2022 Senate race in Alabama, has introduced a bill that would impose an additional 10% duty on Chinese imports and on Chinese components that are part of goods imported from all other countries from the time the bill passes through the end of 2021. The bill would make the punitive tariff 20% in 2022, and would increase the tariff by 10 percentage points each year until the duties collected "equals or exceeds the total amount necessary to provide full compensation and reimbursement relating to COVID–19."
The House passed The Safe Sleep for Babies Act, which would ban both padded crib bumpers and inclined sleepers for infants, on June 23. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., has passed the House in a previous Congress, but not gotten a Senate vote. In a press release heralding the vote, Cardenas said the Consumer Product Safety Commission said there were 83 deaths related to crib bumpers.
Although CBP was not able to meet its goal of adding forced labor to the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program in 2020, as it had planned (see 2007130041), the agency is trying to do so before Sept. 30 this year, according to Valarie Neuhart, CBP deputy executive director in the office of trade relations. Neuhart, who was speaking to a supply chain meeting on June 24, also said the agency will host industry days on the topic of forced labor the week of June 28 to allow people to see demonstrations of technologies that can trace products' country of origin, or can help firms trace goods through complex supply chains.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who introduced a bill a week ago to renew the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (see 2106170040), said the introduction of a competing bill by the ranking Republicans on the subcommittee and full committee does not alter his assessment of how easy or difficult it will be to move the bills through the House. The Republican bill is largely a copy of the Senate GSP/MTB bill, though there are 60 fewer products in both House MTB lists.
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters during a press conference June 24 that there's strong bipartisan support for bringing back expired Section 301 exclusions, and refunding the tariffs paid since they expired.