Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., and Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., recently asked the State Department to ask Honduras to honor guarantees for U.S. investments in Honduran Economic Development and Employment Zones (ZEDEs), which were created under the Dominican Republic-Central America-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA-DR.
Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Mayra Flores, R-Texas, introduced a bill to make Plattsburgh International Airport and Valley International Airport official ports of entry. Currently, these airports pay for CBP's cargo examinations, immigration inspections and the like.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., one of the leading voices in the Senate for free trade, was unable to get changes to the Section 232 statute into the must-pass defense bill that will be taken up during the lame duck session of Congress.
Big Tech’s digital trade agenda “threatens” consumer privacy, worker safety and anti-disinformation efforts, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., wrote to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Oct. 6. They requested information about a “revolving door” of high-level hiring between the Commerce Department and Big Tech and the potential impact on global digital trade negotiations. They said the unethical practice of hiring high-level staff from tech and allowing them to influence trade deals behind closed doors hurts workers and consumers. They cited potential impacts on negotiations for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.
The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and 36 other House Republicans are calling on the administration to include Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, to expeditiously finalize provisions in the U.S.-Taiwan Trade and Investment Framework, and to negotiate a free trade agreement with Taiwan as soon as possible. The bill, introduced Sept. 28, is called the Taiwan Policy Act. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas said, "Deterrence is key to stopping the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] from provoking a conflict that would seriously harm U.S. national security.”
Two House Republicans, including the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to the CBP commissioner to ask him to explain how CBP screens products containing Chinese critical minerals, and to detail "the methodologies used to gather intelligence about forced labor in critical mineral supply chains and whether you believe these methodologies are sufficient?"
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., followed up on a letter asking for flexibility on electric vehicle tax credits with a bill that would phase in the sourcing and manufacturing requirements linked to credits.
A bill that temporarily lifts a 13.6% tariff plus $1.035/kg tariff on base powder that's an input to baby formula passed both the House and Senate on Sept. 29, just three days after it was introduced in the House by Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and the subcommittee's top Republican, Adrian Smith, R-Neb., along with others (see 2209260058). It passed the House with a voice vote and passed the Senate unanimously.
The Senate Agriculture Committee this week advanced the nomination of Alexis Taylor, President Joe Biden's nominee to be USDA’s undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs, to the full Senate (see 2205160011). During her nomination hearing, Taylor said she expects U.S. agricultural traders to have “huge opportunities” in the Indo-Pacific. She said they should prepare for expanded market access (see 2209230028).
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., in a tight race for re-election, asked the Treasury Department to write regulations for the electric vehicle tax credits that make more vehicles eligible for the credits than the text of the Inflation Reduction Act delineates.