The U.S. will impose a ban on imports of all Russian energy products, President Joe Biden said March 8. "The American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin’s war machine," Biden said at the White House. A White House fact sheet said the ban would be accomplished through an executive order that will prohibit "the import of Russian oil, liquefied natural gas, and coal."
No new purchases of Russian oil, liquefied natural gas or coal can be made by American parties, starting March 8, the White House said. But, there will be a 45-day wind-down period where deliveries from contracted purchases can enter the U.S., a senior government official said. The Treasury Department issued a general license outlining the details.
The leaders of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees agreed on legislation to suspend normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus and to ban the import of oil from Russia, they said on March 7.
A new Canadian approach to dairy tariff rate quotas, which still sharply limits the retail sale of imports, drew fire from three U.S. dairy trade groups.
Democrats who lead the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis are asking major carriers for extensive documents and proprietary information, saying they have the authority to investigate price gouging and profiteering connected to the pandemic.
As rhetoric in Congress grew for banning Russian oil imports, the White House poured cold water on the idea. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said March 3 that "our objective ... has been to maximize impact on President Putin and Russia while minimizing impact to us and allies and partners. That would raise prices at the gas pump on the American people because it would reduce the supply available. And that is certainly a big factor for the president at this moment." She also said that sending more liquefied natural gas to Europe will help "accelerate its diversification from Russian gas." Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who introduced one of the bills that would ban crude oil imports, said 7% of America's oil comes from Russia (see 2203010044).
The House China package's trade title includes a major rewrite of antidumping duty and countervailing duty laws, but the Senate China package doesn't, so a conference committee from both chambers would have to agree to get the changes into law. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who co-sponsored the Senate bill colloquially known as Leveling the Playing Field Act 2.0, said in a Capitol hallway interview that he thinks the chances of that happening are good.
The Federal Maritime Commission is planning to issue an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on container return and "earliest return date" practices by carriers, Commissioner Rebecca Dye told the Senate Commerce Committee. She also said there will be an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on detention and demurrage billing practices.
China's lack of worker rights, weak environmental standards "and anticompetitive subsidies are the hallmarks of China’s artificial comparative advantage. It is an advantage that puts others out of business and violates any notion of fair competition," the annual trade policy agenda from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said, and the administration is looking to advance fair competition "through all available avenues," including coordinating with other countries, using existing trade agreements, or new tools, it said.
A bipartisan bill was introduced March 1 in the Senate to revoke normal trading relations with Russia "and other countries that invade sovereign nations." The next day, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee introduced his own version, which echoes the House bill, in that it not only revokes permanent normal trade relations, it also suggests that the U.S. delegation to the World Trade Organization work to convince other countries to expel Russia from the WTO.