Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who has opposed the proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel Corp. by Japan-based Nippon Steel Corp. since it was announced in December (see 2312200056), said April 2 that a new report about Nippon Steel’s ties to China provides another reason for the Biden administration to reject the deal.
Reps. Garret Graves, R-La., and Mary Sattler Peltola, D-Alaska, asked the administration to halt the import of shrimp from India, following an exposé of labor violations in Indian shrimp processing facilities. The two said the report also showed "severe food and safety issues" with the shrimp. The report didn't at all focus on food safety, only glancingly mentioning that shrimp can be overtreated with antibiotics in India.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has appointed Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., to chair the House Select Committee on China when its current chairman, Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., leaves Congress next month, Moolenaar and the speaker’s office announced March 25.
Five senators, from both parties, want to end the 15% tariff on titanium sponge for most favored nations, and introduced a bill to change the tariff line.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 43-0 on March 20 to approve a bill that would add Chinese drone company Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI) to the FCC's Covered List, thereby prohibiting DJI technology from operating on U.S. communications infrastructure. The move came eight days after the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology took similar action (see 2403140013).
The Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act, which gives the Federal Maritime Commission power to investigate allegations against shipping exchanges, passed the House March 21 by a vote of 393-24. It also directs the FMC to establish standards for price indexes published by shipping exchanges, such as the Shanghai Shipping Exchange.
The Senate passed a resolution that could undo the USDA's approval of imported Paraguayan beef, if the House also votes to end these imports by a veto-proof margin.
House Select Committee on China Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., asked Homeland Security Investigations to look into whether a surge in drone imports from Malaysia is due to transshipment from China, and asked the administration to hike tariffs on Chinese unmanned aerial vehicles, either by increasing Section 301 tariffs on the product, by initiating an antidumping/countervailing duty investigation, and/or opening a Section 232 investigation.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., asked the leaders of luxury apparel company Loro Piana to defend its practices in sourcing vicuña wool in Peru.
Sens. John Kennedy, R-La., Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., and Katie Britt, R-Ala., claimed victory after the Commerce Department announced it isn't reducing antidumping duties on Vietnamese catfish from $2.39/kg to $0.14/kg (see 2403130061). They and other Southern Republicans had decried the preliminary decision earlier this year (see 2401220029). They said that reduction in duties ignored more than 20 years of precedent in the case, and would "also set a troubling precedent for the approximately 250 [non-market economy] proceedings involving communist governments before the Commerce Department."