Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, speaking at a conference hosted by free-trade interest groups, said Congress will assert itself when it's time to renew fast-track trade negotiating authority in July -- and that no changes to NAFTA can take effect unless Congress signs off. "Because the Constitution very clearly assigns to Congress the power to lay and collect tariffs and to regulate foreign commerce, Congress must have the final word on the fate of NAFTA," he said March 20, according to prepared remarks. "Congress will use the extension disapproval process under the Trade Promotion Authority law to emphasize that the administration must adhere to the TPA negotiating objectives and to encourage the president to seek new agreements with our trading partners."
Mara Lee
Mara Lee, Senior Editor, is a reporter for International Trade Today and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in early 2018, after covering health policy, Midwestern Congressional delegations, and the Connecticut economy, insurance and manufacturing sectors for the Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper (established 1674). Before arriving in Washington D.C. to cover Congress in 2005, she worked in Ohio, where she witnessed fervent presidential campaigning every four years.
House of Representatives appropriators want to know whether the Commerce Department will be able to make prompt determinations on steel and aluminum tariff product exemptions if the agency receives 4,500 applications, as it projected. The Appropriations subcommittee that handles Commerce's budget heard from Secretary Wilbur Ross on March 20. Ross said that the fiscal year 2019 budget request does ask for more staffing. "We believe we can handle the influx," he said.
Business interests are continuing to sound the alarm that widespread tariffs against China as punishment for intellectual property theft and forced technology transfer are a bad idea (see 1803160009). "The Administration should not respond to unfair Chinese practices and policies by imposing tariffs or other measure that will harm U.S. companies, workers, farmers, ranchers, consumers, and investors," said a letter sent March 18 by 45 business groups to President Donald Trump. The signatories -- which included five regional customs brokers' trade groups and the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America -- were led by tech industry trade groups.
A few more Congress members are joining Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee's efforts to limit the president's discretion to impose tariffs and quotas (see 1702100043), with a companion House bill introduced on March 15. The same day, a letter was issued to Congress members, asking them to sign on to the House or Senate bill, arguing, "U.S. economic growth is now threatened by new tariffs on steel and aluminum used by U.S. manufacturers, along with repeated threats to terminate reciprocal zero-tariff trade agreements that benefit the United States."
Environmental standards and labor issues must be part of future free-trade agreements, and countries that pay "sub-standard wages" and have substandard environmental practices should be subject to "antidumping" duties, say Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. The two introduced S. 2566, the Level the Playing Field in Global Trade Act of 2018, on March 15.
Tariffs are a tax on consumers, and not the right way to address China's industrial policies and unfair trade practices, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says. U.S. Chamber CEO Thomas Donohue said March 15 that sweeping tariffs against China "could lead to a destructive trade war with serious consequences for U.S. economic growth and job creation. The livelihood of America’s consumers, businesses, farmers, and ranchers are at risk if the administration proceeds with this plan." Administration officials say the Section 301 technology transfer and intellectual property investigation response will be released in the coming weeks.
There's been momentum in the NAFTA negotiations, but "we still think it is likely the president could withdraw," said Brian Kingston, a vice president with the Business Council of Canada. President Donald Trump has threatened to leave the deal (see 1708310011). The Canadian government has made a lot of diplomatic outreach in the U.S. Congress recently, and Kingston is hopeful that lawmakers would just sit on the request and not take action, he said during an event at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies on March 15. That would result in a "zombie NAFTA," he said. "Not an ideal outcome." An announcement to withdraw is really a six months' notice of withdrawal, and some believe the U.S. cannot end NAFTA tariff rates without a congressional vote to set replacement rates (see 1711150031).
The U.S. will request World Trade Organization consultations with India to resolve a trade dispute, as it contends that five Indian government programs provide $7 billion in illegal subsidies for exports. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer made the announcement March 14, with a statement that said, in part, that “USTR will continue to hold our trading partners accountable by vigorously enforcing U.S. rights under our trade agreements and by promoting fair and reciprocal trade through all available tools, including the WTO.”
The path forward for Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and Generalized System of Preferences renewals remains uncertain despite some hope that both could be part of the omnibus funding bill that has to pass before March 23. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said nothing concrete on whether on the bills will pass this month. "I'd like to see action on both of those, because there's such bipartisan support here in the House," he said when asked if they will be part of the omnibus.
Despite the recent attention on Section 232 tariffs, some expect the effects of the Section 301 investigation started last year (see 1708210024) to eclipse the steel and aluminum import restrictions, panelists said at a Washington International Trade Association event March 13. Wendy Cutler, a former acting deputy U.S. trade representative, said once the White House announces what it's doing to respond to China's intellectual property transgressions, "we won't be talking about steel and aluminum."