A final rule that took effect in early 2022, ending bovine spongiform encephalopathy-related import restrictions for live sheep and goats and most sheep and goat products is the target of a bill introduced by five Republican senators from Western states. Sen. John Barasso, R-Wyo., tried to stop this rule before, in January 2022 (see 2201130006). USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said that the restrictions were put in place before "extensive research” showed that sheep and goats “pose a minimal risk of spreading BSE” (see 2112020022).
Mara Lee
Mara Lee, Senior Editor, is a reporter for International Trade Today and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in early 2018, after covering health policy, Midwestern Congressional delegations, and the Connecticut economy, insurance and manufacturing sectors for the Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper (established 1674). Before arriving in Washington D.C. to cover Congress in 2005, she worked in Ohio, where she witnessed fervent presidential campaigning every four years.
Moving manufacturing from China to another Asian country is not the way to "get ahead of the game" in avoiding forced labor detentions, said Amanda Levitt, a Sandler Travis lawyer, while speaking during a virtual Sourcemap conference on supply chain transparency. Levitt said that tracing falls apart for most firms at the Tier 2 level, and that's not enough. Many of the items identified by nongovernmental organizations as being produced with Uyghur forced labor -- cotton, aluminum, PVC -- are raw materials much deeper than tier 2.
The Reinforcing American-Made Products Act, which passed the Senate by unanimous consent in 2021, has been reintroduced by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and independent Sen. Angus King, who caucuses with the Democrats.
Canadian leaders with an interest in trading with the U.S. are looking South with trepidation, realizing that President Donald Trump could be back in office in 2026, when all three countries will have to agree to continue the NAFTA successor.
Even though thousands of CBP employees will be required to work without pay to clear cargo in the case of a government shutdown on Sunday, importers are preparing for problems, since they have experienced them in previous shutdowns.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, speaking by video link at an Atlantic Council/Atlantik-Brücke program in Berlin Sept. 22, said she remains "very hopeful that we will have something to show the rest of the world in the next six-week period" as EU and U.S. negotiators continue to try to harmonize both trade defenses and approaches to privileging trade in green steel and aluminum.
Morgan Lewis attorneys said that although the number of detentions by CBP under suspicion of Xinjiang content in the automotive and aerospace sector don't suggest there's a high risk of exposure to Uyghur labor in supply chains, importers should recognize that the issue of forced labor enforcement in the sector is not going away.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., underscored the need to lower tariffs through the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program for American businesses during high inflation at a hearing on reforming GSP, and asked his colleagues to "move forward with open minds and the urge to get things done."
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., said changing the terms of "de minimis is something that we are going to have a lot of fruitful discussions [on], we are doing that with the Senate. It's a very bipartisan concern."
A former Senate Finance Committee chairman when Republicans were in the majority, a pro-trade Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, and that committee's trade subcommittee leaders all agree -- if a returned President Donald Trump imposed a global 10% tariff by executive order, Congress likely would step in to undo it.