Could Florida's 27-member delegation vote no on the new NAFTA because seasonality provisions for antidumping laws didn't make it into the agreement? There "certainly have been conversations about that," according to Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a pro-trade Democrat from Florida, who added, "And I think Georgia is another one of the states that is deeply interested in seeing a resolution."
Mexico's ambassador to the U.S., Martha Barcena, told an audience that after staff and members of Congress have visited Mexico to evaluate the new NAFTA, "the feedback is that they understood much better the scope of the enormous labor reform that we're doing in Mexico." She said they then realize there isn't a need to ask for a deeper labor reform. So now the questions are turning more to monitoring and enforcement and a guarantee that the law will be implemented.
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, wrote to Kevin McAleenan, the acting head of the Department of Homeland Security, telling him that most cocoa from the Ivory Coast should be stopped at the ports. The letter they sent July 16 said that a report in The Washington Post in June had photos and first-hand accounts that West African cocoa producers rely on indentured child labor.
After the third working group meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, members acknowledged that they're still shaping their specific asks -- but they also complained that Lighthizer has not countered where they have made requests. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said changing the biologics exclusivity period in the new NAFTA should be "so easy."
While Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., says progress is being made in the weekly meetings with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, he said he doubts the working group and USTR will have a meeting of the minds on any of the four planks they're negotiating on in the NAFTA rewrite. The issues outstanding are enforcement, the environment, labor and the biologic drug exclusivity period.
President Donald Trump rejected implementing quotas or tariffs on imported uranium used for nuclear power plants -- a decision sure to please Canada, as it is the most significant source of U.S. imported uranium.
Freshman Democrat Stephanie Murphy of Florida is already making a name for herself on trade, both during House Ways and Means Committee hearings and through leading an effort to restrict the administration's ability to levy tariffs on national security grounds without congressional approval.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said that although under fast track authority the administration could send the implementing bill for the NAFTA rewrite on July 9, the administration will not be doing that. "There's respect for this legislative process and the importance of Pelosi involved this process... the White House is not going to do anything without consulting with her," he said. He referred to White House Chief Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow's comments earlier that morning about the administration's plans.
Leaders of the generally pro-trade New Democrat Coalition warned the U.S. trade representative not to send an implementing bill for the new NAFTA to Congress on July 9. Rep. Derek Kilmer, chairman of the New Dems, and Rep. Gregory Meeks, co-chairman of the group's trade task force, spoke to reporters July 8 about why they sent a letter that day to USTR warning him off.
Nearly 50 organizations, individuals and countries weighed in with the Commerce Department on its proposal to incorporate an analysis of currency distortion in countervailing duty cases (see 1905240035). Some lawyers and organizations said that the proposal cannot survive a World Trade Organization challenge, that there is no consensus on how to determine government-influenced currency distortion, and that the respective responsibilities of Treasury and Commerce in the proposed rule is not clear.