The House voted to provide more time for a Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking report on fentanyl and other synthetic opioid trafficking, giving the commission 390 days rather than 270 days to produce its first report on the costs and benefits of approaches to halting the trafficking of these drugs from China, Mexico, India or other countries of concern. The bill passed the House 410-14 on Sept. 28. Reps. David Trone, D-Md., and Fred Upton, R-Mich., introduced the bill in August.
A bill that would require foreign sellers on e-commerce platforms to accept personal jurisdiction in the U.S. and allow themselves to be served in a lawsuit passed in the House Judiciary Committee on Sept. 29. The SHOP SAFE ACT also requires e-commerce platforms to confirm that their sellers provide legitimate contact information. Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., as he introduced the bill, said, "The bill also encourages platforms to monitor and screen for known indicia of counterfeiting and to keep repeat infringers from reappearing on their platforms. These measures assess a platform’s actions from a reasonableness standard, taking into account that different-sized platforms will have different resources and capabilities to devote to these efforts."
Although continuing the treatment of customs brokers' pass-throughs to CBP in bankruptcy is not controversial, lawmakers say, the bill that would make this treatment permanent has a ways to go to be able to get a vote before the temporary protection expires.
European Union Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters that because of the work that needs to happen within the EU to get it done before retaliatory tariffs are scheduled to double, the U.S. and the EU need to reach an agreement by the beginning of November. Tariffs on the retaliation list are supposed to double on Dec. 1. Dombrovskis said this on Bloomberg TV; he also suggested to reporters that the import and export monitoring that was part of the removal of steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico is something that the EU is open to.
Most trade groups and companies that have filed comments so far on extending Section 301 tariff exclusions on COVID-19 pandemic-related imports from China want those tariffs to continue to be waived. Comments were due Sept. 27. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced Sept. 27 that it will temporarily extend the exclusions to Nov. 14, rather than Sept. 30, so that agency employees can have more time to analyze public comments (see 2109270044).
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, and the Trade Subcommittee chairman and ranking Republican met with World Trade Organization Director-General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala when she was in town last week. Brady and Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., issued a statement that said, "We were delighted to meet with Director-General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at this critical juncture in the history of the World Trade Organization. As we discussed today, our commitment to the success of the WTO is unwavering. However, the United States has long insisted that reform is needed at the WTO, and bipartisan support in Congress for WTO reform is stronger than ever." Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., chairman of the trade subcommittee, said, “It was an honor to lead a bipartisan roundtable discussion with Director-General Ngozi where members shared their support for the WTO and relayed their priorities to Dr. Ngozi directly. I, along with several of my colleagues, emphasized the importance of a WTO TRIPS waiver on COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and tests as well as the critical role that the WTO has to play in protecting the climate. I’m also glad we were able to discuss illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and was encouraged by Dr. Ngozi’s comments about potential progress in dealing with these horrific and destructive practices.”
A panel of trade experts said managed trade doesn't have to be a dirty word, but that the conflation of national security and economic security is dangerous. The Washington International Trade Association decided to host a discussion on managed trade after an essay was published by Edward Alden called, "Free Trade Is Dead. Risky ‘Managed Trade’ Is Here."
The domestic textile industry, which employs about a half million people and a million less than 25 years ago, was the focus of U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai's trip this week to factories in the Carolinas. Tai met with textile executives and leaders in the National Council of Textile Organizations trade group, and, according to a summary of the Sept. 23 meeting, she said the administration wants to increase trade between the U.S. and El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. One of the factories was a thread factory -- in the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, unlike in NAFTA, thread must be from either the U.S. or one of the CAFTA-DR countries.
Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., introduced a bill that would prohibit the Biden administration from changing country-of-origin labeling on goods made in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. The Biden administration has made no public moves to do so, but under the Obama-Biden administration, according to Israeli press reports, enforcement was stepped up on a longtime rule that goods made in the West Bank had to be labeled as such.
The Commerce Department has initiated a Section 232 case to determine whether the importation of neodymium magnets, a type of rare-earth magnet used to improve motor efficiency, is imperiling the national security of the United States. The department signaled it might initiate such an investigation back in June (see 2106080002), when it published a supply chain study.