Eight House members, four Democrats and four Republicans, wrote to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai that five months of consultations is more than enough, and it's time to push for a binding resolution to the administration of dairy tariff rate quotas in Canada. Under the USMCA, the next steps could be Canada and the U.S. agreeing to conciliation or mediation, or the U.S. could call for a dispute settlement panel. Reps. Ron Kind, D-Wis.; Tom Reed, R-N.Y.; Antonio Delgado, D-N.Y.; Glenn Thompson, R-Pa.; Suzan DelBene, D-Wash.; Dusty Johnson, R-S.D.; Jim Costa, D-Calif.; and David Valadao, R-Calif., sent the letter May 21, and in it noted that Canada reserves part of its quotas for processors in Canada, a factor that undermines the ability of American dairy exporters to use the TRQs.
No date has been scheduled yet for a vote on the China package championed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., but lengthy amendments from senators are continuing to flow in, many with trade implications.
Lawyers speaking at the Foreign Trade Association’s World Trade Week event said CBP is already drowning because of the consequences of the massive increase in post-importation tariff exclusions, and they're expecting it to get worse. Michael Roll, from Roll & Harris trade law firm, said he's betting that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will reopen the exclusion process for Section 301 tariffs before summer's over. But he expects it will take until late 2021 or early 2022 for exclusions to be granted, which means many imports that entered after exclusions expired, or that never had exclusions, will have been liquidated by the time the importers learn they didn't have to pay the tariff.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., introduced a bill called the Manufacturing Abilities Determine Economies (MADE) in the Americas Act that would incentivize moving supply chains that are concentrated in Asia to either the U.S. or its allies in the Western Hemisphere. The two announced the bill in a press release May 19. The bill also would prioritize the establishment of free trade agreements in the Western Hemisphere. "Given the complexity of market forces, we are likely unable to bring all these manufacturing operations to the U.S., which is why this legislation would incentivize moving operations to our allies in the Western Hemisphere as a secondary priority," Kinzinger said. "It is my hope that these incentives would also help address the root causes of irregular immigration."
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, says there is the potential for a bipartisan consensus on a strategy to compete with China. Romney, who was speaking at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce program May 19, said the two parties are more united than they were two years ago, as they recognize China's threat to liberal democracies. He said that "China’s rise is the result really of their economic resources, and those are resources that are built in part through predatory practices, particularly subsidized or predatory pricing which allows them to put western businesses out of business...."
A Republican proposal for a highway bill requires customs brokers and other "covered entities" to verify that the hired motor carrier is registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, has appropriate insurance, and has not been determined unfit to operate by the FMCSA or a state. Brokers are covered "only to the extent that the customs broker is engaging in a movement under a customs bond or in a transaction involving customs business," according to the legislation. These provisions would create "a National Hiring Standard to clarify and standardize industry best practices for hiring safe carriers," according to summary of the bill. "This will ensure that shippers, brokers, and intermediaries have reliable and accurate information on which to base hiring decisions."
A former U.S. trade representative and a former deputy national security adviser agree that companies that do business in China are stuck between a rock and a hard place, as they will anger China if they disavow abuses in Xinjiang or Hong Kong, but could break U.S. law if they make clothes with Xinjiang cotton.
In a joint statement, Canada's trade minister, Mexico's economy minister and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said they reviewed USMCA committee work, noting progress and offering “recommendations for future work to maintain progress.”
The Leveling the Playing Field Act 2.0 (see 2104160037) could provide the new tools the administration needs to defend the U.S. from trade distortions caused by Chinese firms, Ohio's two senators wrote to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
The Endless Frontier Act, a massive bill working its way through the Senate that aims to improve the United States' ability to compete economically with China, also addresses a number of issues relevant to importers, including enforcement of the forced labor statute, seizure of counterfeits, and progress on the issues that led to the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods.