Amid a four-year review of Section 301 tariffs that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will end soon (see 2404170074), Democratic senators led by Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio called on President Joe Biden to maintain the tariffs on China. In a short May 2 letter, they said the country continues to disrupt global supply chains and distort markets across such sectors as steel, solar technology and electric vehicles.
A bill that would ban the import of Russian uranium 90 days from enactment passed the Senate by unanimous consent on April 30. The Prohibiting Russian Uranium Act had passed the House in December (see 2312120008).
A bipartisan bill led by a House Ways and Means Committee member would allow warehouses and brands located in foreign trade zones to send goods that were imported into the zones to consumers and have those packages qualify for de minimis treatment.
A bipartisan group of senators is supporting trade remedy petitions filed by the U.S. Aluminum Extruders Coalition, which seek antidumping and countervailing duty measures on aluminum extrusion imports from 14 countries, it told the commerce secretary.
Although all members of the House Ways and Means Committee supported a bill renewing the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, the bill proceeded to the House floor on a split bipartisan vote of 17-24 as Democrats unsuccessfully called to include an extension of the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers program, which lapsed in 2022.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wants CBP to investigate the role of slave labor in goods being sold over retail apps Temu and Shein, he said in an April 16 letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Rubio asked that CBP investigate the exporters and, if necessary, add them to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act’s Entity List, which keeps track of companies that sell merchandise produced with slave labor. Both companies have abused the de minimis provision to get goods tainted by forced labor into the U.S., the senator said.
Four Republican representatives on April 12 pushed back as the Biden administration seems poised to reverse a decision by then-President Donald Trump that required products made in certain parts of the West Bank to be labeled as “Made in Israel.”
The two top lawmakers on the House Select Committee on China on April 16 asked the State Department to “intensify and elevate its global diplomatic efforts” to ensure the EU passes an agreement to ban imports of goods made with forced labor.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai testified April 16 before the House Ways and Means Committee regarding the Biden administration’s trade policy agenda for 2024. She expressed support for upcoming legislation to renew the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and to close the de minimis imports loophole (see 2404160029), and she detailed some of the administration’s values and aims for the upcoming year. “Our approach is one that addresses and advances the interests of all parts of our economy and does not pit Americans against Americans,” she said.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., sent a letter to President Joe Biden April 15 regarding the “urgent threat” posed by the Chinese retail application Temu, an app that has been seeking to nudge its way into a market still dominated by Amazon.