Congress should repeal the Section 232 provisions that allow the president to impose tariffs in response to national security threats, Cato Institute Senior Fellow Scott Lincicome and Research Fellow Inu Manak said in a policy analysis released March 9. The statute is "superfluous given the expansion of presidential trade and other national security powers in laws enacted" since Section 232 became law in 1962, they said. Absent the appetite for a full repeal of the tariffs -- Lincicome and Manak's first proposal -- the writers floated other options for congressional changes, including amending the law to hand final say over Section 232 to Congress, providing for judicial review, narrowing what constitutes “national security,” moving Section 232 investigations to an independent agency and including a public interest provision.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said that now that the tariffs are suspended in the Airbus-Boeing dispute, he's interested in seeing “how do the negotiations go? I said last week that I didn’t object to taking the tariffs off if we can get a solution to this thing that’s been going on for … years.” Grassley, a Senate Finance Committee member who was speaking to reporters on a conference call March 8, said he doesn't think the Senate will vote on Katherine Tai's confirmation for U.S. trade representative this week. “But she’s surely going to be done before Easter break,” he said.

The administration needs to open up a fair, timely and transparent exclusions process for Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Kevin Brady said, but he doesn't know what the U.S. trade representative's timetable will be on deciding whether that will happen. He said he hopes it will be very soon. Brady, R-Texas, spoke to reporters on a conference call March 3. “One of the reasons I continue to push this administration to not simply follow through on compliance with the phase one agreement but to go further into phase two” is because once agreements are hammered out, he thinks, it will be time to begin to roll back those tariffs, he said.

The Airforwarders Association asked the Biden administration to consider “revising several regulatory ordinances that are preventing progress and inhibiting efficiency across a wide range of businesses,” it said March 3. The association, which represents more than 275 cargo companies, did not elaborate on what those regulations are. “Congress must prioritize the passage of a long-term, fully funded transportation and infrastructure bill that reauthorizes the FAST act and allows for substantial federal investment in our nation’s ports, airports, and highways,” the association told the administration. The Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, or FAST, passed in 2015 and authorized spending through fiscal year 2020, which ended last September.

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, announced he will introduce a bill that would require importers of beef, leather, palm oil, soy and cocoa to report where the commodities were produced, and to prove that the goods were not grown or grazed on illegally deforested land. The Environmental Investigation Agency, along with 28 other non-governmental organizations, also released an open letter March 3 asking Congress to enact “significant new trade rules and policy measures to support the health and well-being of the world’s forests and the people who depend on them.” They said a law like Schatz's would be a critical element, and said that commodities produced on illegally deforested land should be banned from entry into U.S. commerce. “Around half of deforestation in the tropics, where most deforestation is occurring, is the result of illegal clearance for commercial agriculture,” EIA said in a release accompanying the letter. “In addition, the production of commodities such as palm oil, cocoa, and beef is commonly linked to forced and child labor.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said March 2 that he hasn't yet gone over Katherine Tai's written answers after her hearing but that he expects to vote for her confirmation as U.S. trade representative. Although he didn't work with Tai personally on USMCA, he said his team did so and “had nothing but good things to say about her.” Grassley said he doesn't expect to be able to tell how trade policy is going to unfold from the written answers (see 2103010026). “I think she’ll be approved a long time before we know exactly how” President Joe Biden's “administration is going to handle U.K.” negotiations, if it's going rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership, “what they’re going to do in regard to China, what they’re going to do in sub-Saharan Africa, like [President Donald] Trump was starting with Kenya,” he said during a conference call with reporters. “I think you’re going to get well into the middle of the year before you see any direction.”

The Senate Finance Committee will vote March 3 on the nominations of Katherine Tai as U.S. trade representative and Wally Adeyemo as deputy treasury secretary.

Gina Raimondo, the governor of Rhode Island, was confirmed by the Senate to be the next commerce secretary, on an 84-15 vote March 2. She will resign as governor so that she can join President Joe Biden's Cabinet.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he directed lawmakers this week to begin crafting legislation to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor industry to out-compete China. The legislation will include a bipartisan bill introduced by Schumer and other lawmakers last year that would increase U.S. investment in technology, research and high-tech manufacturing (see 2006010011), Schumer said, adding that the legislation will also include other semiconductor industry initiatives. Schumer said he plans to call for a vote on the legislation this spring. “[W]e need to get a bill like this to the president's desk quickly to protect America's long-term economic and national security,” Schumer said Feb. 23. The Semiconductor Industry Association applauded Schumer’s comments and said investing in U.S. innovation is “key” to out-competing China (see 2102180062). “We urge the Biden administration and Congress to invest boldly in domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research,” SIA President John Neuffer said.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the U.S. trade representative nominee has “really extraordinary skill in bringing people together,” and that it's critical to confirm her, deputy Treasury secretary nominee Wally Adeyemo, and the Health and Human Services secretary, so they can get to work. Wyden, who spoke with reporters Feb. 22, didn't spend much time on trade issues, but he said he thinks Katherine Tai is “going to do a first-rate job” heading the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.