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.

Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., have introduced a bill that would direct antidumping and countervailing duty revenue to counties that have been injured by trade. According to a one-page description of the bill, introduced Dec. 6, "Priority is given to communities where a domestic producer would be most likely to increase production and employment with the benefit of a grant."

Because China is undermining the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) with its domestic market for pangolins and pangolin products, the White House should ban the import of "associated fish and wildlife" from China, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., ranking member on the House Select committee on China, argue.

Seventeen senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are asking the U.S. trade representative to reach "an expedited agreement with the European Union" so that tariffs don't return on exported whiskey Jan. 1. That tariff would be 50% under the schedule the EU imposed as retaliation for the Section 232 tariffs on European steel and aluminum exports.

A bill that would ban the import of Russian uranium (see 2203280068) 90 days after passage, unless the Energy Department grants a waiver because "no alternative viable source of low-enriched uranium is available to sustain the continued operation of a nuclear reactor," has been recommended by the House Energy Committee.

A bill that would ban the import or export of marine species that pose "a substantial risk of harm to the sustainability of such species or the coral reef ecosystem of such species," or of species that have poor survivorship in transport or captivity, was introduced by Reps. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, and Jared Huffman, D-Calif.

A bill that would ban the import of seafood of Chinese origin -- which includes fish caught in Alaska but processed in China -- was introduced by Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., and Rick Scott, R-Fla.