Sens. Ted Budd, R-N.C., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., have sent a letter to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai urging them to take action to “immediately and meaningfully limit the volume of Mexican steel concrete reinforcing bar (rebar) being imported into the United States.”
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said both retroactivity and the length of renewal are being debated as lawmakers try to reach consensus on re-authorizing the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program.
The top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee said that getting Chinese shipments banned from the de minimis program is how he'd like to close out his congressional career. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., is retiring at the end of 2024. "I think we will see this moving forward, if only for the animus toward China" in Congress, he said.
National Association of Manufacturers CEO Jay Timmons said that all of his 250 members want liberalized trade, and said he didn't understand why a simple issue like the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill has been hung up in partisan conflict for three years.
For proponents of the Strengthen Wood Product Supply Chains Act, requiring the federal government to tell importers a specific reason the goods were detained and provide information that "may accelerate the disposition of the detention" would increase transparency and save importers money on demurrage fees. For the bipartisan bill's opponents, the bill's planks, including allowing importers to move the wood to a bonded warehouse after the first 15 days of detention, would undermine law enforcement.
Consultants and associations that support international trade in Africa, Asia, Western Europe and the Western Hemisphere agreed that the shift in trade policy in the U.S. has trading partners questioning whether America will meet its commitments, or, in the words of the German Marshall Fund's Heather Conley, enter a "nationalistic economic crouch" that will be difficult to end. The panel spoke at a Washington International Trade Association event Feb. 12.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., told an audience of trade professionals that while he appreciates the complaint that CBP cannot adequately screen packages that enter under de minimis, he thinks if de minimis is tightened, it could make enforcement even more difficult.
A half-dozen Democrats asked the USDA to certify that Mexican avocado orchards exporting to the U.S. are not on illegally deforested land. Their letter, which they publicized on Super Bowl Sunday, peak avocado consumption time, said they read an article in The New York Times that showed avocado growing in Michoacan and Jalisco "has had a catastrophic impact on the environment and local communities.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that talking about tariffs more than other aspects of trade policy is, to a large degree, "a red herring," and said reducing U.S. trade policy "down to a conversation about tariffs is really unfair."
Trade groups are telling the Consumer Product Safety Commission that its supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking on new electronic filing procedures for certificates of compliance is premature, since the beta pilot for importers e-filing CPSC certificates and the CPSC Product Registry only began late last year.