Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., asked the Commerce Department to change its rules for Section 232 tariff exclusions for extruded aluminum. In a June 7 letter, he argued that the tariffs protect primary aluminum producers, but that "overly broad tariff exclusion rules" have resulted in insufficient protection for U.S. aluminum extrusions.
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.
Once CBP submits its proposal for a new customs modernization law, National Foreign Trade Council Senior Director of International Supply Chain Policy John Pickel says, Congress will dig into how they want to shape the bill. It’s not an easy task to produce a bill with a balance between enforcement and trade facilitation, but that’s Congress’ intention, he said.
A bipartisan group of House members and Senators have reintroduced a wide-ranging bill to change antidumping and countervailing duty laws, after the bill failed to advance last year.
Mexico's ban on the import of goods made with forced labor went into effect three weeks ago, so if importers whose goods were detained by CBP under suspicion of forced labor wanted to re-export to Mexico, that avenue is closed, said Eduardo Sotelo Cauduro, a partner with Sanchez DeVanny, a Mexican law firm.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai asked the International Trade Commission to produce a report on the greenhouse gas emissions in the domestic steel and aluminum sectors, "which will help to inform discussions with the European Union regarding the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum."
Customs modernization legislation should not just offer new tools for CBP to stop unlawful trade is the argument from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a dozen other groups involved in importing and exporting. The groups have 18 asks, laid out in a detailed five-page paper they sent to the leaders of the committees that will shape the bill.
Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., and 20 other members of the House of Representatives, mostly from the Midwest, asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to make the ethanol export market in Brazil a priority, because Brazil has both non-tariff barriers and tariffs on U.S. ethanol exports.
The U.S. asked for formal dispute settlement consultations with Mexico over its policies on biotech products, but did not commit to moving forward with a panel request if the consultations are not fruitful within 75 days. That's the earliest a panel could be requested under USMCA.
A joint letter from U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to the Senate Finance Committee chairman defended their efforts to engage with Congress as they negotiate the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., along with Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., introduced the Formula 3.0 Act, a bill that would permanently waive tariffs and lower trade barriers on imported infant formula.