Reps. Ron Kind, D-Wis.; David Schweikert, R-Ariz.; Don Beyer, D-Va.; and Drew Ferguson, R-Ga., introduced a resolution May 11 calling on the U.S. to “reaffirm its commitment” to membership in the World Trade Organization “and work with other WTO members to achieve reforms at the WTO that improve the speed and predictability of dispute settlement, address longstanding concerns with the WTO's Appellate Body, increase transparency at the WTO, [and] ensure that WTO members invoke special and differential treatment reserved for developing countries only in fair and appropriate circumstances... .”

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., and Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., are co-sponsoring the Illegal Fishing and Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would require importers to provide more information on imported fish and shellfish at least 72 hours before entry, and require that all importers have an International Trade Fisheries Permit. It would expand the reach of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which currently only covers 13 species particularly vulnerable to overfishing or fraud, to include all species within two years. If a SIMP audit found wrongdoing, the permit would be pulled.

Despite an International Trade Commission decision that blueberry farmers are not hurt by imports, Florida and Georgia delegation members are not giving up on a trade remedy to protect vegetable and fruit growers from import competition. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., spearheaded the letter, along with a mix of Republicans and Democrats in the House from Florida, Georgia and Michigan, and the letter was signed by 35 members of the House, primarily from Florida, Georgia and Michigan, but also including members from South Carolina, North Carolina and Washington state. Both members who traditionally support free trade and those who don't were on the May 5 letter. Other senators on the letter include Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.

Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., introduced legislation that would “incorporate digital trade as a statutory consideration in designating beneficiary developing countries (BDCs) under” the Generalized System of Preferences, he said in a May 7 new release. The bill would allow the U.S. trade representative to “prevent countries from receiving BCD status if, for example, they restrict digital trade to the detriment of U.S. strategic interests through predatory industrial policies that target technology sectors,” it said. Some developing countries seem to be following China's lead in implementing problematic digital trade measures, LaHood's office said. “These countries benefit from duty-free access to American markets under the GSP while employing digital policies that undermine American values, jobs, and exports. Updating and reforming the GSP to support sound digital trade policies will advance American strategic interests around the world and promote sound economic development in the developing world.”

Uyghur Human Rights Project Board Chair Nury Turkel told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that his nonprofit wants swift passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would create a rebuttable presumption that goods from China's Xinjiang province were made with forced labor. "The 11 current Withhold-release orders (WROs) are a wholly inadequate response to the gravity of the crimes, the harm to American workers whose wages are undercut by forced-labor competition, and the unwitting complicity of American consumers who buy face masks, hair weaves, cotton apparel, and solar panels produced by the forced labor of Muslim Uyghurs," he said in his prepared testimony.

One Democrat and one Republican from each chamber sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, asking the administration to reexamine the decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2017, a decision they called “misguided and short-sighted.” The May 5 letter, led by Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, a close ally to President Joe Biden, also acknowledged that “there are significant political obstacles to negotiating an agreement to rejoin the TPP in its current form.” But Carper, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said there should be an effort to determine the best course for engagement with the countries that continued on without the U.S. to see how they could build on recent trade agreements.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai will testify on the administration's trade policy agenda next week, appearing May 12 at 9:30 a.m. before the Senate Finance Committee and May 13 at 10 a.m. before the House Ways and Means Committee.

The top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee said he doesn't have a good sense of when the renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program or the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill could come up for a vote in the House, where the bills must originate. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, told International Trade Today during a May 6 press call that Senate Finance Committee ranking member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., are engaging about both programs, in the context of a China bill that committee is working on. “I think any discussion at this point is helpful,” he said. Brady said he thinks the two bills could move sooner if they were made a priority in the House, since they have both stood on their own in the past, and have passed under suspension rules or unanimous consent, which means they don't take up significant time on the legislative calendar.

Making sure the recent changes to bankruptcy law that affects custom brokers don't expire at the end of the year (see 2012210045) is the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's top priority, lobbyist Martin Whitmer said during a political update at the NCBFAA conference May 5. The group also is closely watching the 21st Century Customs Framework, renewal of the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, ACE funding, forced labor legislation, the infrastructure package and the highway bill. “Trade and freight movement are one of the top topics in D.C. right now,” he said. “Members of Congress want to learn from you.”

Seventeen Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, led by New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, are asking the House Appropriations Committee to increase funding of CBP's Office of Trade by $50 million, with instructions that $25 million be dedicated to preventing the import of goods made with forced labor. Their letter, sent May 3, says CBP could use the extra money for origin tracing isotope technology, for its Advanced Trade Analytics Platform, and to hire and train 75 workers.