A scholar at the market-oriented Mercatus Center, a research organization at George Mason University, said that although 25% tariffs on steel and 10% tariffs on aluminum have now been in place for three years, there's no sign they've successfully reduced global overcapacity in those metals. Christine McDaniel, a senior research fellow at the center, cited a Wall Street Journal article that found that the steel industry was not revived by the price protection from imports. McDaniel wrote in a research paper that the administration should be asked what it would achieve to leave the tariffs in place indefinitely. But if they are to stay, McDaniel said the exclusions process should be reformed.
U.S.Trade Representative Katherine Tai talked with Japan's Trade Minister Kajiyama Hiroshi about how they're concerned about unfair trading practices from non-market economies such as China, but did not mention that topic coming up with the South Korean trade minister. South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee and Tai talked about how the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement strengthened economic ties, and discussed World Trade Organization reform, the call summary said. The Korean press emphasized agreement on writing digital trade rules. Tai also spoke with Mexican Economy Secretary Tatiana Clouthier, and they talked about fully implementing USMCA and Mexico's labor reform. “Tai also stressed the critical importance of cooperation on climate and environmental issues, as well as reform at the World Trade Organization and the mutual benefits of robust bi-lateral agricultural trade,” a readout of the talk said. Clouthier tweeted her thanks for such a productive meeting.
A bill that would reverse permanent normal trade relations with China was introduced by Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., on March 17. It would require annual presidential approval for most favored nation status, but also would rewrite the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to say countries with trade abuses and human rights abuses would not be permitted to have MFN status. “For twenty years, China has held permanent most-favored-nation status, which has supercharged the loss of American manufacturing jobs. It’s time to protect American jobs and hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for their forced labor camps and egregious human rights violations,” Cotton said in a press release.
A bill that would increase inspections on imported seafood has been reintroduced, after a 2020 and a 2018 version (see 1806280011) did not get a hearing or a vote in committee. The text of the bill was published March 22. The bill would require that 20% of shipments be inspected annually. If more than three shipments imported failed inspection during a year, imports from that party would be banned for the following year.
When members of Congress had the opportunity to publicly tout their priorities for legislation this year at the House Ways and Means Committee, most of the Democrats emphasized social spending and ending the cap on state and local tax deductions on personal income taxes more than traditional infrastructure projects. Only one Republican, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, spoke at the March 23 hearing, to say that Republicans would boycott the hearing because holding a hearing without any expert witnesses was just a cover for “another multi-trillion, one-sided spending bill.”
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai opened her first full week on the job with a series of video calls with major allies and trading partners -- Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union -- and diplomatic summaries of the calls from both sides mostly echoed each other, suggesting there was a good deal of agreement.
A bipartisan bill aiming to prevent shortages of critical goods, such as N95 masks, would authorize $1 billion over five years for the Commerce Department, and would establish an Office of Supply Chain Preparedness in the department. The bill, introduced March 18, would establish a National Guard-style program of manufacturing and supply chain experts who could be deployed to the federal government in times of crisis. The bill is sponsored by Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.
The Biden administration said it will appeal a January panel decision at the World Trade Organization that the Commerce Department was wrong to resort to “facts available” calculations of subsidies or cost of production when companies submitted information after deadline and submitted information that was verifiable. The panel also said that the Commerce Department at times was unclear in its requests to firms in South Korean steel and large power transformer antidumping and countervailing duty cases, and that the penalties should be recalculated.
A top European Commission trade official said that it's not reasonable to expect that countries can agree on reforms to dispute settlement that would satisfy the U.S. by November this year. So, Ignacio Garcia Bercero said, countries will need to set a goal of restoring the binding dispute settlement system for the 2023 ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization. “The WTO without binding dispute settlement is not the WTO,” Garcia Bercero said during a presentation online at the Peterson Institute for International Economics on March 19. “The continued escalation of conflicts if we don’t have a functioning dispute settlement system should be something we should all be worried about.”
The Senate and House versions of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act have diverged fairly substantially and the law seems likely to ultimately be closer to the Senate approach, said Ray Bucheger, a lobbyist at FBB Federal Relations. The House bill is more punitive, including a requirement for CBP to name and shame importers whose goods are detained. The Senate bill requires public comment and a public hearing open to importers before establishing a strategy to prevent the importation of goods made with forced labor. Part of that process is expected to produce guidance to importers, and there will still be a rebuttable presumption that goods from China's Xinjiang region were made with forced labor, but if importers implemented the guidance, that would change the burden of proof, according to Bucheger.