Of all the outstanding trade policy options -- new trade promotion authority, requiring Section 301 exclusions, revisions to antidumping law and a customs modernization law -- the head of government relations at Flexport said he thinks customs modernization is the most likely to pass. "I think we are coming on the cusp of something," Darien Flowers said, and said he thinks a bill will be enacted before 2025. Flowers once worked for Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who is leading the bill, though more recently he served on the minority staff of the Senate Commerce Committee.
NEW YORK -- At the U.S. Fashion Industry Association trade conference, the group's Washington counsel said that he believes there's a high likelihood that the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill will be passed before Congress goes home in December. USFIA President Julia Hughes added that because some of the members who are retiring are pro-trade, and they recognize that sentiment is waning in Congress, "that's gonna be an impetus to do something during the lame duck. Whether they're successful or not, that's not clear yet."
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Although President Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration tariffs on Chinese imports during his campaign, and although his treasury secretary repeatedly said they contribute to inflation and some of them are harmful, trade lobbyists for UPS and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the tariffs are largely here to stay.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who is retiring from Congress at year's end, told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that he was disappointed there were no trade items in the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science (CHIPS) Act. "But I’m ready to negotiate a grand bargain on trade in this lame-duck session," he said in a video address Oct. 17. Portman was scheduled to participate in a roundtable of former U.S. trade representatives but was traveling overseas on an official congressional trip.
The Department of Labor is requesting comments to inform development of the government’s 2014 edition of the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor and possible updates to the List of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor, as needed, DOL said Oct. 4. DOL is requesting commenters provide information to its Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking by Dec. 16. Further, DOL also seeks comments to inform the next edition of the Worst Forms of Child Labor report, an annual review that fulfills a statutory mandate tasking the labor secretary with reporting findings with regard to Generalized System of Preferences countries’ implementation of international commitments to eliminate the “worst forms of child labor,” DOL said.
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More than a dozen amendments involving trade have been proposed for the National Defense Authorization Act, a bill the Senate passes every year, and is expected to take up in a lame-duck session after the November election.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative wants Congress to bring back the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, it announced Sept. 29, and it wants Congress to consider designating countries in the Pacific Islands Forum that are developing countries as a regional association.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.