House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said members of Congress have a wide range of views "of what the reaction should be" to compliance weaknesses in de minimis shipments. "But I think we need to continue the conversation and look for solutions that can generate the results we need," he said. Smith said he thinks Congress can pass a de minimis bill this year.
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.
The House of Representatives will not be voting on a de minimis restriction as part of its "China week," according to a list of 31 bills published by its leadership Sept. 3. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had said in July that he expected changes to de minimis to be part of the package (see 2407080049).
Higher or new Section 301 action on Chinese goods such as batteries, EVs, plug-in hybrids, ship-to-shore cranes, solar cells and panels, syringes, needles, critical minerals, some metals will not go up until at least September, as the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has missed a second self-imposed deadline. The proposed changes, first announced in May, said some tariffs would go up on Aug. 1, but on July 30, the office said it had not finished responding to more than 1,100 comments, and it would make a final determination in August (see 2407300047).
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told China's foreign minister that the U.S. is still concerned about the Chinese government's "unfair trade policies and non-market economic practices," according to a White House readout that focused more on military and law enforcement issues than trade.
Princeton University professor Aaron Friedberg, who serves on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, says his recent Foreign Affairs essay on addressing Chinese exporting ambitions is an effort to put forward a vision of what "we want the global economy to actually look like," something he says has been missing in the piecemeal efforts of Section 301 tariffs, EU trade defenses and anti-coercion instruments and other reactions to Chinese nonmarket overcapacity.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies "Trade Guys" said that while there is some pressure on Congress to get the Generalized Systems of Preferences benefits program renewed, and restrict de minimis, competing pressures make it unlikely bills will become law this year.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 12-18:
The Coalition for a Prosperous America, which advocates for protecting American manufacturing, said the new Senate Finance Committee bill to restrict de minimis moves "things in the right direction," even more than the bill that passed the House Ways and Means Committee in the spring.
Former President Donald Trump said last week that he might put not just a blanket 10% tariff on imports from countries other than China, but 20% tariffs, at least on "foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years" (see 2408140058).