The U.S. Trade Representative announced that Mexico “will establish a strict monitoring regime for exports of electrical transformer laminations and cores made of non-North American” grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES), and as a result, if there is to be a tariff or quota on electrical transformers or the laminations and cores that are used in them, Mexico will not be subject to it.
House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said that while he doesn't know if the lame-duck Congress will do anything other than pass a bill to fund the government, and another COVID-19 relief package, he is convinced that both the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program “would pass easily as suspension bills.” Suspension bills, like the unanimous consent process in the Senate, do not require floor time, only that no one objects.
Even as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce held out hope for a President Joe Biden rolling back tariffs on imports from countries other than China, it doesn't expect Congress to limit a president's ability to impose tariffs without congressional approval. Neil Bradley, executive vice president of the Chamber and its top policy officer, said that if Biden were to win, “he may choose a slightly different path” on tariffs than Donald Trump has.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, will no longer lead the committee even if Republicans retain the majority in the Senate. The Republicans have term limits for committee chairmanships, so he will move on. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, is the most senior member of the committee, and thus is the next expected chairman, though that move has not yet been settled.
The only producer of electrical steel in the U.S., which employs thousands of workers in the swing states of Pennsylvania and Ohio, thanked Donald Trump for imposing a Section 232 remedy on laminations and cores that are used to make electric transformers. A press release about its statement, which came out the day before Election Day, did not say whether a tariff or quota would be imposed.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said a renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program could happen either by packaging the bill with an omnibus spending bill, or, if Congress just passes another temporary spending bill, by attachment to a tax extenders bill.
Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden's harsh words on USMCA (see 2010300046) would have even more significance if the Democrats are able to take the majority in the Senate with the Nov. 3 election. Dan Ujczo, a close USMCA watcher and partner at Dickinson Wright in Ohio, said lawyers from his firm were talking about Wyden's letter with people in both Mexico and the U.S. He said he sees it more as a political document at the moment. “It’s pretty amazing that USMCA hasn’t been a large factor in the election,” Ujczo said. He said he thought both Democrats and Republicans would claim victory on the NAFTA rewrite, but instead, the election has barely touched on trade, and has been focused mostly on the COVID-19 pandemic and President Donald Trump.
Almost two-thirds of the Thai products that will soon be ineligible for the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program are not currently exported to the U.S., Thailand's director-general of the Department of International Trade Promotion told Thai reporters. Keerati Rushchano said 147 products will be affected, including steering wheels, auto wheels, transmission boxes, plastic glasses frames, chemicals and latex mattresses.
The Hong Kong ambassador to the World Trade Organization told the U.S. ambassador there that Hong Kong is initiating a dispute, and wants formal bilateral consultations on the U.S. decision to require goods made in Hong Kong to be marked 'Made in China.'
The Democrat who would lead the Finance Committee if the Senate majority changes parties after the election blasted President Donald Trump over labor, auto rules of origin, dairy and biotech export regulations, in a letter that said the benefits promised in renegotiating NAFTA have not been delivered. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote in the Oct. 30 letter that “the Administration has yet to bring any enforcement action under either the state-to-state dispute settlement or the new Rapid Response Mechanism despite the persistence of labor violations in Mexico.”