A day before high-level trade talks with Taiwan (see 2106300009), Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Mark Warner, D-Va., led a letter asking U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to reconvene the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) meetings, and requested that she then “take steps to begin laying the groundwork for negotiation of a free trade agreement (FTA), or other preliminary agreement, with Taiwan.” Forty other senators signed.
Rep. Jodey Arrington, a Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, was cool to fellow Texas delegation member Sen. John Cornyn's proposal to study the possibility of allowing goods made in foreign-trade zones to be considered originating under USMCA.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked Congress to work to renew and update the fast-track law officially called Trade Promotion Authority, which just expired. Executive Vice President and Head of International Affairs Myron Brilliant said, “TPA is the vehicle that allows American workers, farmers, and companies to secure the benefits of a new market-opening trade agreements; it lets members of Congress set negotiating objectives and guarantees they will be consulted as trade talks proceed; and it strengthens the hand of U.S. trade officials as they engage with foreign governments. To advance a pro-growth, pro-jobs trade agenda, TPA is essential.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced a bill that would require a study of whether Canadian and Mexican manufacturers are able to get tariff breaks on non-North American inputs to their goods, and if so, does that affect the cost-competitiveness of products manufactured in the U.S. for domestic and export markets. Cornyn led an unsuccessful effort to convince the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in 2020 that goods produced inside foreign-trade zones should be treated as products of the U.S. (see 2012020031).
Republican Rep. Mo Brooks, who has former President Donald Trump's endorsement in the 2022 Senate race in Alabama, has introduced a bill that would impose an additional 10% duty on Chinese imports and on Chinese components that are part of goods imported from all other countries from the time the bill passes through the end of 2021. The bill would make the punitive tariff 20% in 2022, and would increase the tariff by 10 percentage points each year until the duties collected "equals or exceeds the total amount necessary to provide full compensation and reimbursement relating to COVID–19."
The House passed The Safe Sleep for Babies Act, which would ban both padded crib bumpers and inclined sleepers for infants, on June 23. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., has passed the House in a previous Congress, but not gotten a Senate vote. In a press release heralding the vote, Cardenas said the Consumer Product Safety Commission said there were 83 deaths related to crib bumpers.
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters during a press conference June 24 that there's strong bipartisan support for bringing back expired Section 301 exclusions, and refunding the tariffs paid since they expired.
This year's version of the Senate Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, harmonized with the House version, passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee June 24 by a unanimous voice vote. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., would create a rebuttable presumption that all goods produced in China's Xinjiang region were made with forced labor. Before the vote, Rubio said that there are 1,500 companies located in or near more than 100 mass detention facilities. "This is slavery. As simple as that. American companies argue that their supply chains are clean. What this bill says is: 'Prove it. Especially if it's coming out of Xinjiang.'" Rubio said he expects it will be impossible to prove there's no forced labor involved in the goods in most cases.
Correction: The Miscellaneous Tariff Bill said that items that will not undergo any substantial processing or transformation, as interpreted by CBP, will be banned from future MTB lists (see 2106170040).
Eighteen House members, led by Reps. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., and Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., introduced the Nicaragua Free Trade Review Act, which requires the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to review Nicaragua's compliance with the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) within 60 days of the bill becoming law. “Under Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua has become a land of oppression” Salazar said in a June 17 news release. “Ortega's thugs are jailing political opponents and violently silencing dissenting voices. I've introduced the Nicaragua Free Trade Review Act because trade with the United States is a privilege, not a right. We must show Ortega's regime that they cannot continue repressing the Nicaraguan people while reaping the economic benefits of free trade with the United States.”