Congress should move quickly on advancing the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill in order to ramp up U.S. manufacturing exports, said the National Council of Textile Organizations in a Nov. 12 statement. The legislation has languished on Capitol Hill since expiring at the end of 2012. A Senate moratorium on earmarks has so far, at least partially, hampered progress on a new bill (see 13111328). The bill decreases production costs, making the U.S. more competitive, said NCTO. “Frankly, the failure to approve a miscellaneous tariff bill is a classic example of the legislative dysfunction that has gripped Washington in recent years,” said NCTO President Auggie Tantillo. “For decades the MTB was a non-controversial, bipartisan initiative. There is no good reason that this critical issue should remain unresolved.” President Barack Obama and likely next Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pledged to tackle trade in the next Congress (see 1411050056). Lawmakers should build on those commitments to push through an MTB bill, said NCTO.
Several House Republicans recently threatened to compel Export-Import Bank President Fred Hochberg to allow high-ranking Ex-Im officials to testify before a House committee if Hochberg does not voluntarily give approval for the testimonies by Nov. 13. House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and two subcommittee chiefs pushed Hochberg to approve the bank's Chief Risk Officer, Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel for testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The Republican landslide in the midterm elections paves the way for the administration and Congress to really tackle trade policy, and all sides should come together quickly to make Trade Promotion Authority law, said The Washington Post in a Nov. 6 editorial (here). “No policy area is riper for bipartisan action than trade,” the editorial added, while urging Congress to pass the TPA bill introduced nearly a year ago in both chambers of Congress. “There are perennial concerns in Congress that fast-track cedes too much authority to the president. But the legislators who rolled out the bill last January addressed those worries,” said the editorial, which also urged progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. “This is a crucial measure that leaders of the new Congress can and should take off the shelf, pass and send to Mr. Obama for his signature.” A bipartisan group of House Ways and Means and Senate Finance leaders unveiled the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities Act of 2014 (here) at the outset of 2014, but that bill has since stalled, in part due to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s, D-Nev., opposition. But both President Barack Obama and the likely next majority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., vowed to press forward with trade the day after the elections (see 1411050056). Some critics say, however, that bill will fail to garner broad enough support for passage (see 1411050049).
Correction: Industry representatives pointed to the mid-term election results as an opportunity to move ahead with the U.S. trade and manufacturing agenda (see 1411050007).
House Ways and Means Committee members, as well as other House members, reached across the aisle in recent days to pressure U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman to safeguard digital products and cross-border data flow in the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other trade agreements. The bipartisan group of 55 House members threatened to reject a TPP implementation bill that fails to meet a robust standard of digital protection (here). “We encourage you to resist efforts by other countries to include overly broad exceptions that would unnecessarily undermine these provisions and provide lower levels of protection for digital products and services than other areas of trade,” said the letter, led by committee lawmakers Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and Ron Kind, D-Wis. “We also urge you to resist any delay in the implementation of dispute resolution mechanisms.” The U.S. International Trade Commission is reported rapidly increasing U.S. digital services exports, the letter added. The Oct. 31 letter follows two other similar letters from lawmakers in recent weeks (see 1410270005).
The Tennessee Department of Transportation pressed the state’s general assembly members to ramp up pressure to reauthorize the federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) by reaching out to Tennessee’s congressional delegation, saying the recent short-term extension is hampering the state’s ability to close highway project deals. President Barack Obama signed into law in August a bill that authorized federal spending for highway projects through May 31, 2015 (see 14081001).
More than 100 U.S. companies and trade groups pushed members of Congress on Oct. 30 to immediately give the Secretary of Agriculture authority to revoke portions of the U.S. country-of-origin labeling regime for meat muscle cuts, while emphasizing that a World Trade Organization appeal increases the likelihood that Canada and Mexico will retaliate against U.S. goods. Since the WTO sided with Canada and Mexico in the dispute on Oct. 20, industry has increased pressure to change the COOL laws (see 1410200033). The U.S. has 30 days to appeal the ruling from the Oct. 20 ruling. “While there is an opportunity for the United States to appeal this decision, final adjudication should occur early 2015,” said the coalition of organizations, which includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the North American Meat Association. “At that time, if the Compliance Panel’s original findings are found to be valid, both Canada and Mexico could subject an array of U.S. exports to retaliatory tariffs.” Those organizations comprise the COOL Reform Coalition.
Six Democratic House members in recent days pushed the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association to strike an accord in ongoing labor negotiations, but praised the two sides for maintaining commercial flow at West Coast ports while the talks continue. The ILWU contract with the maritime association expired on July 1, and some feared the negotiations would shut down some ports or force cargo diversions (see 14070222). “For the past several months, we have been monitoring, with great interest, the progress in your ongoing negotiations,” said an Oct. 24 letter to the heads of both organizations, signed by California lawmakers Janice Hahn, Alan Lowenthal, Juan Vargas, Linda Sanchez, Grace Napolitano and Mark Takano. “We have been encouraged by joint messages that you have released throughout the negotiations indicating your commitment to maintaining a smooth flow of commerce as you negotiate a new agreement.”
Recent congressional pressure to ease cross-border data flows has the potential to fuel economic growth and job generation in the U.S., said the Telecommunications Industry Association in an Oct. 27 statement. Four senators urged the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Oct. 24 to remove data flow restrictions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (see 1410270005). "The ability to send commercial data across borders with minimal unnecessary restrictions is vital for U.S. businesses of all sizes and all sectors that conduct business here in the United States and around the world,” said the TIA. “A great example is how e-commerce has rapidly become the way that U.S. small businesses access global markets to expand their exports.” Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Finance ranking member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, alongside Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. and Commerce ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., sent the letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman Oct. 24 (here).
Four senators want Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations to properly account for cross-border data flows. Any agreement “must include meaningful, clear obligations, enforceable through a strong and effective dispute settlement mechanism, that prohibit unnecessary limitations on the cross-border transfer, storage and processing of data or the physical location of computing infrastructure,” said Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Finance ranking member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, alongside Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. and Commerce ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., in a joint letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman Oct. 24 (here). “We urge you to stand firm against efforts by other countries to seek reservations and overly broad exceptions that would undermine these obligations and provide lower levels of protection for trade in digital goods and services as compared to other areas of trade.”