After the EU decided to extend its suspension of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. whiskey, motorcycles and other products, several senators took credit for pushing the U.S. trade representative to achieve that result.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., a longtime advocate for sugar policy revisions and increased sugar imports, asked the Agriculture Department and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative "to swiftly implement recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in its recent report, 'Sugar Program: Alternative Methods for Implementing Import Restrictions Could Increase Effectiveness'" (see 2310310063). The report, which noted that raw sugar imports haven't filled the tariff rate quotas in any of the past 27 years, recommended USDA evaluate alternative methods of allocating raw sugar TRQs, and that USTR consider other allocation methods that would meet World Trade Organization obligations.

A senator who is pushing against reductions in the scope of the Section 301 tariff action against China (see 2311210048) said that while he "had some good conversations with the administration about it," he doesn't know when the administration will announce the results of its review.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans asked Temu, Alibaba and Shein to justify their use of data, to decry China's treatment of Uyghurs and to explain how they avoid stocking products made with forced labor or counterfeits.

Sen. Joe Manchin is asking the Government Accountability Office to provide a legal opinion on whether Treasury Department guidance for implementing electric vehicle tax credits can be vetoed by Congress through the Congressional Review Act. Because these are proposed rules, they would typically not be subject to the CRA.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., complained that he couldn't get a majority of his colleagues to support his bill that would have redirected $36 million in IRS funds to the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP)

The chairman and ranking member of the House Select Committee on China, joined by a bipartisan group of 10 colleagues, wrote to the FDA commissioner and Brian Boynton at DOJ's consumer protection branch about their concerns about "the extreme proliferation of illicit vaping products from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Once imported illegally from the PRC, these unregulated products can be easily bought online and in brick-and-mortar stores across the United States. We ask you to work with the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency to address this urgent problem with all due speed."

Fourteen senators, led by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., demanded that the Biden administration "set a clear deadline" for Mexico to enforce its 2019 joint agreement on steel and aluminum. That agreement lifted 25% tariffs on Mexican steel but said that the countries would monitor for export surges.

The House passed a bill Dec. 11 that would ban imports of Russian uranium by 2027. The Prohibiting Russian Uranium Act, H.R. 1042, would take effect 90 days after enactment, unless the Energy Department grants a waiver because there is no other viable source (see 2312050080). The amount eligible for any waiver would decrease each year until no waiver would be allowed after 2027.

A bipartisan pair on the House Ways and Means Committee argue that offering more generous competitive needs limitations under the Generalized Systems of Preferences benefits program will help importers shift supply chains out of China, and they recently introduced a bill that would reform the CNL program.