Mara Lee

Despite hope that senators who were not ready to support the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill could be won over on June 28 (see 1806280065), the bill did not come up for a vote before the Senate adjourned for the July 4 holiday. Senate Finance Committee staffers did not offer any estimate of when the MTB might be considered.

Senate leadership is hoping to move the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill on the evening of June 28, said Ron Sorini, a principal at Sorini and Samet. The hold from Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., that was preventing the vote (see 1806200043) was lifted and Sorini said that as senators were canvassed about allowing a vote under unanimous consent, there were a few objections, but "they think they’re resolvable."

White House economic adviser Peter Navarro told an audience at the Hudson Institute that if China abandoned half of its industrial policy practices, it wouldn't be enough to resolve the problem. Navarro did not mention anything about tariffs at the June 28 event, but rather the elements of what he calls China's economic aggression that the U.S. is hoping to force change on through the leverage of tariffs.

A Louisiana Republican introduced a bill that would require 20 percent of imported seafood to be inspected by the Food and Drug Administration, and require that the first 15 shipments from a new exporter each be inspected. If a shipment fails any measure of inspection, the exporter would be subject to 15 consecutive inspections again. Currently, about 2 percent of imported seafood is inspected, according to Food and Water Watch.

The administration said it will wait for Congress to pass the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, an update to current laws on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States rather than making its own restrictions on Chinese investment in American firms. As part of the Section 301 investigation, the treasury secretary was supposed to make recommendations on restrictions by June 30. President Donald Trump announced June 27, "I have concluded that [FIRRMA] legislation will provide additional tools to combat the predatory investment practices that threaten our critical technology leadership, national security, and future economic prosperity."

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer released a lengthy criticism of retaliatory tariffs, saying U.S. tariffs on aluminum and steel are "wholly legitimate and fully justified" and that other countries "concocted a groundless legal theory" that the U.S. tariffs are safeguards rather than national security-based. "Faced with massive excess capacity that puts the very future of our steel and aluminum industries at risk, President [Donald] Trump took certain measures that he deemed essential to the national security of the United States," Lighthizer said in the June 26 statement. "These measures were implemented only after long and careful analysis, and after all trading partners had the chance to address our concerns."

The American Institute for International Steel and two companies filed a lawsuit June 27 at the U.S. Court of International Trade over the constitutionality of Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act. The suit claims that Section 232 is unconstitutional because it delegates such broad authority to the president and there is no judicial review to those broad powers. "The lawsuit seeks a declaration that the law relied on by President Trump to impose that tariff is unconstitutional, as well as a court order preventing further enforcement of the 25% tariff increase," AIIS said in a news release. The trade group also asked that a three-judge panel hear its case, because that would allow an appeal to go straight to the Supreme Court.

An effort to add an amendment to the Senate farm bill that would require approval from Congress for Section 232 tariffs to go into effect was stopped on June 27. Sen. Sherrod Brown, who said steel towns in his home state of Ohio have been devastated, blocked a vote on the amendment sponsored by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. Brown, a Democrat who largely supports President Donald Trump's approach on trade, said that Canada and Mexico "are primary targets for transshipment" of unfairly traded steel from China, and said that everyone has "seen the tricks China uses to get around the antidumping and countervailing duty laws."

Lawmakers should vote for legislation to limit the president's ability to impose Section 232 tariffs, more than 60 national business groups and more than 200 local chambers of commerce and similar organizations pleaded with the Senate in a letter sent June 26. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., led a charge to give Congress a way to roll back the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum and to block similar tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts, but it stalled because Senate leaders said such a measure has to originate in the House of Representatives, as it affects revenue.

Harley-Davidson said retaliatory tariffs against its motorcycles in Europe cannot be passed on to consumers without massively impacting sales, so it will work on increasing capacity at its plants outside the U.S. to serve the European market. Harley-Davidson motorcycles sold into the European Union have faced a 31 percent tariff since June 22; before that, there was a 6 percent tariff. In a regulatory filing June 25, the Milwaukee-based company said it will have to eat between $30 million and $45 million in tariffs for the rest of 2018. It estimated it will take nine to 18 months to complete a ramp-up in capacity in other factories. The company has factories in India and Brazil, and is in the process of opening a factory in Thailand.