Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Mark Warner, D-Va., said Jan. 4 that they strongly encourage European Union officials “to delay any agreement with China so that the next Congress and president can work alongside them in ending China’s illegal and unfair trade practices and threats to global supply chain integrity.” Some trade negotiators worry that the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (see 2012300030) will allow China to divide and conquer. “America’s go-it-alone approach to trade over the past four years has harmed American workers, consumers, and businesses, all of whom have paid the cost of various punitive tariff campaigns,” the senators said in a statement, adding it also undermined America's global standing and slowed economic growth. “It is encouraging that President-elect [Joe] Biden would like the European Union to wait until he takes office to finalize an investment deal with China. A multilateral approach is necessary to confront China on issues like its abusive labor conditions, unfair and opaque subsidies, forced technology transfers, intellectual property theft, and more,” they said.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who said last month he'd be asking for negotiations to begin with Taiwan for a free trade agreement (see 2011190060), is trying to draw attention to the argument. “American workers and manufacturers would have more customers, American consumers would have access to more affordable goods, both economies would grow faster, and America would strengthen its relationship with a key regional ally and increase our economic engagement in the Indo-Pacific region” with an FTA with Taiwan, Toomey said in a press release on Dec. 23. Taiwan is the 11th largest trading partner for the U.S., and the bilateral trade supported about 208,000 jobs in the U.S., according to a Commerce Department estimate for 2015, the most recent available. The resolution has 25 Republican co-sponsors.

Demand shocks, input shortages and some regulatory roadblocks are the primary reasons for shortages of N95 masks, medical-grade gloves and gowns, ventilators and other goods needed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Trade Commission wrote in a report released Dec. 22, after a request from the committees that oversee trade policy in Congress.

There will be $840 million in emergency appropriations for CBP, in light of its lost fees during the COVID-19 pandemic, one of many areas where Congress voted to dedicate additional funding through Sept. 30, 2021. The massive omnibus spending bill that passed both chambers late on Dec. 21 also dedicated an additional $10 million for ports of entry technology. The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund will receive $50 million more than in the last fiscal year. It uses 92% of the fees collected for maintenance purposes, an estimated $1.68 billion in all in the current fiscal year.

The Border Trade Alliance wants the USMCA “technical corrections” fix to leave the treatment of foreign-trade zones out, it said. BTA said it opposes the change “that would prevent goods manufactured within an FTZ from receiving reduced or duty-free treatment” under the agreement that replaced NAFTA and took effect July 1. “USMCA is a trade agreement for the 21st century, but reinstating an old NAFTA-era rule turns back the clock on U.S. manufacturing competitiveness,” BTA Chair Sergio Contreras said. “In keeping with the goal of modernizing U.S. trade policy under USMCA, products produced within FTZs should qualify for duty-free treatment.” The group thanked the six senators who publicly said they oppose the inclusion of FTZ rule of origin changes in a technical fixes bill.

The Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, led by its chairman and trade subcommittee chairman, told CBP that its answers on its enforcement strategy on forced labor “have been insufficient” so far, and they want specifics on what the agency is doing to stop the import of palm oil made with forced labor.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said that the temporary tax break for small brewers, cider makers, vintners and distillers is sure to be renewed as part of the year-end package. Grassley was responding to a question from International Trade Today during a phone call with reporters Dec. 15. Although the tax break is called the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, it also applies to large producers, but not at the same level of generosity. For example, for breweries that produce fewer than 2 million barrels a year, the tax is $3.50 a barrel on the first 60,000 barrels; that's a 50% discount compared with before the law's passage. For all brewers, the tax went from $18 a barrel to $16 a barrel on the first 6 million barrels produced in a year.

Seventy-five House members, led by Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., and Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., are asking U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to automatically extend all product exclusions for the China tariffs. Their letter, sent Dec. 11, says that some expiring exclusions cover personal protective gear and equipment that would be used to administer vaccines. “Additionally, extending these exclusions will provide needed certainty for employers and help save jobs,” they wrote. “We recognize that the exclusions were granted in part on the premise that businesses need adequate time to relocate their supply chains out of China. However... [w]ith global travel essentially shut down, it has been difficult, if not impossible, for company representatives to travel to and inspect potential new sites and to build relationships with new partners.”

Although the reduction in the alcohol excise tax for small producers was meant to last two years, the temporary tax cut continues to draw wide support in Washington to make it permanent. The craft brewers and small distilleries, cider-makers and wineries won a one-year renewal at the end of last year, and 125 members of the House wrote to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to ask that the tax break be extended.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., says that the new administration should prioritize a free trade deal with the European Union following the template of USMCA, saying President Donald Trump's abandonment of serious trade talks with Europe was a “particularly detrimental blunder.”