Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich., is asking the House Ways and Means chairman to direct the International Trade Commission to conduct a fact-finding investigation on the economic impacts of Peruvian blueberry exports on American blueberry growers.
Five House Democrats, including Rep. Gregory Meeks, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced a resolution to terminate the emergency that allowed President Donald Trump to hike tariffs on some Brazilian goods from 10% plus most-favored nation tariffs to 50% plus MFN.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., are asking Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to ban seafood imported from China "and other rogue nations" due to their reliance on forced labor and unregulated fishing.
House Democrats from Texas are asking Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to reverse his decision to end the tomato suspension agreement with Mexico.
Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Greg Steube, R-Fla., introduced a bill Aug. 15 that would codify the Trump administration’s 10% tariff baseline on all imported goods (see 2504020068) and create a separate category of tariffs for China.
The Republican-led House Select Committee on China said Aug. 14 that a new trade agreement the Trump administration is negotiating with China should contain or exclude certain provisions to protect U.S. economic and national security.
Bills recently introduced in the House and Senate would expand information sharing for merchandise that CBP has a “reasonable suspicion” is counterfeit. The bill would allow CBP to share “packing and shipping information” with intellectual property rights holders, according to an Aug. 8 news release from Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., who reintroduced the Senate version.
House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., said Aug. 11 that he’s disappointed General Motors will reportedly import electric vehicle batteries from China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL), which the Defense Department placed on its Section 1260H list of Chinese military companies in January (see 2501060024).
Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., and Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, reintroduced a bill that would add a position at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative for identifying and reporting annually on foreign price-setting for pharmaceuticals, and to recommend trade remedies. The USTRx Act would call his position the chief pharmaceutical trade negotiator.
On the first day of higher tariffs for dozens of countries, prominent Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee attacked the policy, while the Republican chairman put a positive spin on soft employment numbers. The Senate minority leader used his daily floor speech to tie the tariffs to broader economic woes, while Republican leadership focused on Democrats' obstructions to prompt confirmation votes for presidential nominees.