Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and Laredo, Texas, officials during an Aug. 31 stakeholder meeting touted the pre-clearance benefits that an expansion project at Laredo’s World Trade Bridge will bring once completed, according to a statement by Cuellar’s office (here). The project at the eight-lane commercial traffic bridge aims to add a lane for pre-cleared cargo and other lanes, and will include an expansion of the bridge infrastructure, the office said. Furthermore, a U.S.-Mexico joint pre-inspection program would cut customs processing times and trade costs by instituting dual export/import inspections, and is anticipated to expedite goods flows, alleviate congestion, and boost the economic competitiveness of Laredo and its neighbor, Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, Cuellar said. Planned ease-of-business enhancements will allow Laredo to remain the U.S.’s “preeminent inland port,” and give it an advantage over “all other port competitors,” as cargo vehicles will experience easier and more efficient clearance processes, Laredo City Manager Jesus Olivares said in a statement.

The greatest potential for expanded U.S. agricultural exports under the Trans-Pacific Partnership lies in shipments to Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and New Zealand, as the U.S. doesn’t have current free trade agreements with these partners, the Congressional Research Service said in an Aug. 30 report on TPP’s effect on the U.S. agriculture sector (here). For example, TPP would reduce Japan’s tariff on U.S. fresh, chilled and frozen beef cuts from 38.5 percent to 27.5 percent after the agreement enters into force, decreasing to 9 percent 15 years after ratification, which would make U.S. beef tariff treatment comparable to Japan’s treatment of Australian beef, a major competitor of U.S. beef in the country. The potential for greater U.S. agricultural exports is linked to the U.S.’s TPP pledge to eliminate and lower tariffs on several agricultural imports, including tree nuts, peanuts, cotton, fruits, tobacco and wine, from TPP member nations, and to additional duty-free access the U.S. plans to provide through new tariff-rate quotas for dairy products and sugar and sugar-containing products, CRS said. Moreover, the comparative value of tariff benefits granted through NAFTA would decline as TPP tariffs fall, CRS said. Although many U.S. agricultural organizations support TPP, certain unions have expressed opposition, the report said.

Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin pushed the federal government to investigate whether new Canadian regulations that incentivize their dairy processors to move away from using imported U.S. milk violate NAFTA and/or World Trade Organization obligations, according to a letter they wrote to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (here). The senators accused Canada’s National Ingredients Strategy and Ontario’s “Class VI” pricing program of being designed to “intentionally displace” imports from the U.S. “We are particularly concerned about reports that through these types of programs, Canada is moving to target New York and Wisconsin exports of ultrafiltered milk,” the letter says. “Companies from our states inform us that they have already lost considerable export sales as a result of the Ontario dairy policy introduced this past spring. These reductions in export sales impact dairy manufacturers and their supplying farms in areas of our states that are unfortunately already struggling with depressed milk prices.”

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, plans to introduce legislation that would require shipments from foreign countries through the U.S. postal system to provide advance electronic data about packages before they cross into the U.S., Portman said in a statement (here). "That includes information like who and where it is coming from; who it’s going to, where it is going, and what’s in it," the statement said. The bill will aim to block illegal package shipments, with the ultimate goal of stopping exports of fentanyl and carfentanil, from reaching drug traffickers in the U.S., the office said. National governmental mail couriers, rather than private express shippers, often traffic the drugs into the U.S. from countries including China and Mexico, primary sources of illicitly produced fentanyl and carfentanil, Portman’s office said. “Unlike packages entering the U.S. through private carriers – such as UPS or FedEx – the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) does not receive advance electronic customs data for the vast majority of mail entering the U.S. through foreign postal services,” Portman’s office said. “Because the U.S. Postal System does not have these types of sophisticated screening procedures in place, right now it’s often too difficult to detect these drugs before it’s too late.”

CBP's interim final rule (IFR) on antidumping and countervailing duty evasion left out several provisions sought by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, as the agency was drafting the regulations, a Portman spokesperson said in an email. “Our prior bipartisan letter called for interested parties to have access to certain kinds of information throughout the process to ensure transparency,” the spokesperson wrote. Portman and four other senators in June wrote (here) to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske that the rule should allow “all interested parties, including U.S. businesses and workers,” to submit information and access submissions sent by other parties, as well as provide “meaningful opportunity to comment on all of the information that CBP will rely on in making its determination.” But, "the IFR as outlined does not prescribe that level of access to information," the Portman spokesperson said. "It contains a lot of language about how CBP will notify parties on developments under the legally-prescribed timeline, but little about what contact CBP will have with interested parties or what opportunity they will have to comment on the process while it is unfolding.” Under the interim rule, CBP is now required to open an investigation into allegations of AD/CV duty evasion within specific timelines (see 1608190014). CBP didn’t comment, but it recently defended the rule's transparency provisions in response to a public statement from Portman (see 1608240030). Portman helped write the bill that led to the rule and is a member of the Senate Finance Committee.

As the Oct. 12 start date for potential litigation between U.S. and Canadian entities over the bilateral softwood lumber trade lingers in the absence of a new Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA), Oregon mills and workers have expressed concern to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., about harms brought on by “a flood of subsidized Canadian lumber” being shipped into the U.S., Wyden’s office said (here). “Beginning on October 12, U.S. workers and producers will have the option of bringing new trade cases under U.S. law to address the harmful effects of subsidized Canadian lumber on American producers, workers and communities in Oregon and across the nation,” Wyden said in a statement. “Should new cases be filed, I will continue to fight to ensure that America’s trade laws are fully enforced. That includes strengthened provisions that were included in trade enforcement laws I successfully fought to pass this year.”

A greater proportion of companies reported that they knew or “had reason to believe they knew” the source of conflict minerals in 2015 Securities and Exchange Commission specialized disclosure form (Form SD) filings, compared with 2014, but most companies performing subsequent “due diligence” couldn’t confirm the origin of the minerals, according to a Government Accountability Office report (here). Since the SEC approved the rule in 2012 (see 12082308), 97 percent of the companies that performed due diligence after filing the form couldn’t determine whether the minerals financed or helped militias in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and adjoining countries, the GAO said.

Congress will not take action on the Trans-Pacific Partnership this year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said during a speech (here) at the Kentucky Farm Bureau Aug. 25, going a definitive step further than his May statement that approval chances are unlikely in 2016 (see 1605060026). “Trade Promotion Authority is in place for the next president, whoever that may be, and the current agreement, the Trans-Pacific agreement, which has some serious flaws, will not be acted upon this year, but it will still be around,” he said. “It can be massaged, changed, worked on during the next administration. So I hope America will stay in the trade business, and to do that, it’s going to have to be done on a bipartisan basis.” The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn’t comment.

CBP recently began briefing lawmakers on the agency's report on how it can improve importer verifications through customs brokers, a congressional staffer said. The report will lay out how best to require foreign nationals to give customs brokers accurate information and allow for brokers to review information held by the government in order to verify an importer, as required under the customs reauthorization law. CBP was required to study and submit a report to Congress on those issues by Aug. 22 (see 1602170074). CBP briefed the House Ways and Means Committee in person on the report, and the Senate Finance Committee anticipates CBP will provide more details soon, congressional staffers said. “It is delayed,” a Senate Finance minority spokesperson said. “We expect an update from CBP soon.” A Ways and Means majority spokesperson also said her committee hasn’t received the report, and referred questions to CBP, which didn’t comment. The law requires that regulations eventually provide "minimum standards for customs brokers and importers, including nonresident importers, regarding the identity of the importer that shall apply in connection with the importation of merchandise." The law doesn't specify timing for such regulations. Senate Finance Committee majority didn't comment.

There's concern that an Aug. 22 interim rule that creates new antidumping and countervailing duty evasion processes within CBP "does not go far enough to ensure transparency and to promote cooperation with stakeholders," Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said in a statement (here). “I will continue to closely follow the administration and CBP’s implementation of ENFORCE to ensure that it follows our intent to create a new, transparent enforcement mechanism that quickly and effectively promotes enforcement of our trade remedy laws,” said Portman, who added that he was “pleased” that CBP met its deadline for issuing the interim rule ordered by the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act enacted earlier this year. But Portman also criticized the Obama administration for the approximately $2.3 billion in outstanding uncollected AD/CV duties accrued between 2001 and mid-May 2015, as detailed in a Government Accountability Office report released last week (see 1608160032). “Now that we have given them better tools than ever to do so, the Obama administration must ensure our manufacturers and workers have the level playing field that they deserve,” Portman said. Under the interim rule, CBP is now required to open an investigation into allegations of AD/CV duty evasion within specific timelines (see 1608190014). Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in an Aug. 19 statement (here) praised the release of the interim rule and said he'd work with CBP throughout the implementation process to ensure success.