Spain and France announced that Airbus is going to repay subsidy launch loans at market rates -- Germany and the United Kingdom have already been paid back -- and the European Commission said July 24 that this “removes any grounds for the U.S. to maintain its countermeasures on EU exports and makes a strong case for a rapid settlement of the long-running dispute.” The World Trade Organization ruled last year that Airbus and the four countries were not in compliance with industrial subsidy disciplines, and the U.S. imposed 10% tariffs on Airbus planes and 25% tariffs on various foods and beverages, and some apparel and tools (see 1910020044).
House Ways and Means Committee Democrats are asking Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer why the money provided for the Labor Department's Bureau of International Labor Affairs is not supporting worker organizing, as the implementing act suggested.
The House Ways and Means Committee Trade Subcommittee sought to learn lessons for trade and manufacturing from COVID-19, but panelists diverged on whether more money should be spent standing up domestic suppliers of masks and gowns, or whether the government should look to identify sources around the world that can respond to surges in demand like those this year.
The Customs chapter in the U.S. Code, Title 19, will be reorganized by subject matter, not chronologically, the Office of Law Revision Counsel recently announced. Title 19 appeared in 1926, and has 30 chapters. “The new Title 19 -- renamed as Customs and International Trade -- will enable general and permanent laws related to customs and international trade to be better organized and maintained," the Office of Law Revision Counsel said on its website. "Using an act-centric organization framework, the structure of the new title reflects the structure of included acts where possible.”
The U.S. and the European Union should be able to “come to a convergence” on seven planks of reform of the appellate body at the World Trade Organization, said Ignacio Garcia Bercero, European Union Visiting Fellow, Oxford University and a chief negotiator at the European Commission. Garcia Bercero, who noted he was not speaking on behalf of the European Commission, was a panelist on a WTO Reform webinar hosted by the Washington International Trade Association July 23.
Nearly 200 unions and nonprofit organizations asked fashion brands “to cut all ties with suppliers implicated in forced labor and end all sourcing from the Uyghur Region, from cotton to finished garments, within twelve months,” a July 23 news release said. The groups criticized a Retail Industry Leaders Association statement that it does not tolerate forced labor, and that conditions in Xinjiang make auditing supply chains difficult. The advocates say that RILA has “offered no credible explanation” as to how apparel brands and retailers can avoid forced labor “while continuing to do business in a region where forced labor is rife.”
The House version of the National Defense Authorization Act includes an amendment from Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., that directs the Pentagon to issue rules requiring companies that sell at military base commissaries and that import either products or materials from the Xinjiang province to audit their supply chains to ensure their goods are not manufactured using forced labor. Companies that discover a connection to Uighur camps or forced relocations would need to tell the Defense Department whether “they intend to continue sourcing from the region if their supply chains are tainted by forced labor,” Wexton said in a news release. The bill passed the House July 21.
Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., recently introduced the Safeguarding Therapeutics Act, which would expand FDA authority to seize and destroy counterfeits of medical devices, such as EpiPens or a pre-loaded vaccine delivery syringe. It's a companion bill for a House provision (see 2003110003) that is in the latest COVID-19 relief package passed by that chamber. Congress gave FDA the ability to seize and destroy counterfeit drugs in 2012.
A recent executive order ending Hong Kong's special trade status won't result in additional tariffs on goods from Hong Kong, a senior administration official said in a July 23 email. "The July 14, 2020, Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization does not provide for new U.S. tariffs on goods from Hong Kong," the official said. "The Administration will continue to evaluate and adjust our policies as conditions warrant."
A recent executive order suspending Hong Kong's special trade status won't result in additional tariffs on goods from Hong Kong, a senior administration official said in a July 23 email. “The July 14, 2020, Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization does not provide for new U.S. tariffs on goods from Hong Kong,” the official said. “The Administration will continue to evaluate and adjust our policies as conditions warrant.”