Sens. Ted Budd, R-N.C., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., have sent a letter to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai urging them to take action to “immediately and meaningfully limit the volume of Mexican steel concrete reinforcing bar (rebar) being imported into the United States.”
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said both retroactivity and the length of renewal are being debated as lawmakers try to reach consensus on re-authorizing the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program.
A group of 12 members of the House Ways and Means Committee has urged the Biden administration to investigate allegations that at least six Chinese fishing companies that supply U.S. markets employ Uyghur forced labor.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has asked Mexico whether RV Fresh Foods in Uruapan is denying its workers the right to collective bargain. The firm, which makes guacamole, is the first food manufacturer targeted through the USMCA Rapid Response Labor Mechanism. COCENA, a Mexican union confederation, alleges that the company restricted the union's access to the facility and intervened in union delegate elections.
The U.S. will tell CBP to resume liquidation of aluminum parts coming from Asiaway Automotive Components Mexico, a Chinese-headquartered firm that does die casting and machining of aluminum parts in San Luis Potosí. According to Asiaway's website, the factory just opened in June 2023.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said it's extending the deadline for an international corporate income tax deal, and is extending its pause on retaliatory tariffs on countries that have passed or were considering passing digital services taxes against American firms.
The top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee said that getting Chinese shipments banned from the de minimis program is how he'd like to close out his congressional career. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., is retiring at the end of 2024. "I think we will see this moving forward, if only for the animus toward China" in Congress, he said.
National Association of Manufacturers CEO Jay Timmons said that all of his 250 members want liberalized trade, and said he didn't understand why a simple issue like the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill has been hung up in partisan conflict for three years.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative seeks a second round of comments in connection with its biennial review of the operation of the USMCA "with respect to trade in automotive goods" (see 2311210026), following a hearing the agency held on Feb. 7 (see 2402050066), it said in a notice. Post-hearing comments are due by Feb. 28. In the review, USTR and the Interagency Committee on Trade in Automotive Goods are considering how USMCA rules affect the competitiveness, employment and investment in North America's automotive sector. USTR is required to publish a report on the subject every two years.
A half-dozen Democrats asked the USDA to certify that Mexican avocado orchards exporting to the U.S. are not on illegally deforested land. Their letter, which they publicized on Super Bowl Sunday, peak avocado consumption time, said they read an article in The New York Times that showed avocado growing in Michoacan and Jalisco "has had a catastrophic impact on the environment and local communities.