House Trade Subcommittee staffers are working “to make sure” that the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act gets a vote before Sept. 30, when the program expires, a Democratic trade staffer said Sept. 15. She said that the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program will not be voted on this month. Several Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee had said they wanted GSP to hitch a ride with CBTPA, including the committee's top Republican, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas.
An informal adviser to the Joe Biden for President campaign and a former Trump administration political appointee at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative disagreed on the success of President Donald Trump's approach to trade and on the right way to take on China's heavy subsidization of industry and intellectual property theft.
The advance notice of proposed rulemaking on continuing education for licensed brokers is currently circulating in CBP for review, said CBP Deputy Commissioner Robert Perez. Perez was speaking at an online conference of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America on Sept. 14. He did not say what kind of mandatory requirements would be part of the plan, but said that it will include a methodology for approving education accreditors, and said that the agency has “taken into account the excellent feedback from you and other trade stakeholders.” The NCBFAA supports mandatory continuing education, but has been concerned about the details (see 2002130025).
Mexican companies are finding they have less time to reform their union relationships than they had thought, and U.S. firms that contract with companies in aerospace, aerospace, auto and auto parts, cosmetics, industrial baked goods, steel, aluminum, glass, pottery, plastic, forgings, cement and mining sectors should be doing due diligence to learn what the plan is to come into compliance. The head of the AFL-CIO recently said they are planning to file a complaint within the month (see 2009040052).
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and his colleague Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross asking him to bypass the normal exclusion process and lift the 25% tariffs on steel that will be used to rebuild grain bins, machine sheds, or other construction projects in Iowa, and to remove the tariff for agricultural machinery manufacturers. They said that farmers who need to replace grain bins or other buildings with steel infrastructure are being gouged by “opportunists” after sustaining damage from a powerful wind storm Aug. 10, and that they don't have time to wait through the several months' process of applying for an exclusion. They said that the high prices being quoted are proof that there isn't enough domestic supply, and they believe allowing imports at market prices would curb abuses by domestic sellers. “Your staff has often said that one reason they need broad authority under the current Section 232 law is to have the flexibility in case of an emergency. Well, there’s clearly one now. We, and other Members of Congress, will be watching your response closely. We expect you to rise to the task,” they wrote.
Four Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, say they support proposed rules from the Federal Trade Commission to require online and email assertions that products were made in the U.S. to follow the same standards as labels on the products themselves (see 2006230049). Brown, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Connecticut's two senators -- Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal -- wrote in comments to the FTC: “We have long pushed the Commission to utilize all of its existing authority to establish and enforce Made in USA standards, and we strongly support the Commission’s initiation of a [notice of proposed rulemaking] process. We ask that any final rule and its implementation cover all online Made in USA claims, as well as physical labels, and emphasize the Commission’s authority to apply civil penalties to violators.”
With only 20 days left before expiration, lead sponsor Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., said she hopes her colleagues will support a clean reauthorization of the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act, and that she fears that trying to move this bill with a Generalized System of Preferences benefits program expansion and renewal will cause delays. She said that the most recent report on the program from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said all eight countries are in compliance with their obligations, including labor rights.
The USMCA technical corrections bill seems to have stalled out on the Hill, as Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said at a meeting a month ago, he was seeing there was not unanimity among Democrats, and without that, it cannot be done quickly. A Senate Finance Committee spokesman said, “The bottom line is that it’s not clear to us whether certain Democrat senators who voted against USMCA would hold up technical corrections should a package come up for a unanimous consent vote.”
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he's not for an extreme version of free trade, because maintaining manufacturing jobs in the U.S. that provide a decent standard of living is a higher priority than promoting efficiency in business. “While that is an objective, it shouldn’t be the primary objective,” Lighthizer said in a talk at Catholic University conducted over Zoom on Sept. 8.
The multifront tariff war hurts American consumers and businesses, as well as America's standing in the world, argues Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a moderate Democrat from Florida who serves on the Trade Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. Murphy, who was interviewed during an online event hosted by the Washington International Trade Association Sept. 9, said she believes returning to 10% tariffs on some categories of Canadian aluminum undermines U.S. credibility in trade.