A 17-month bipartisan investigation by the Senate Finance Committee has concluded that the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act should be amended to help companies combat the sales of counterfeit goods.
NEW YORK -- Moises Kalach, leader of the Mexican Coalition for USMCA and vice president of a textile conglomerate in Mexico, said his organization has met with 172 House offices and 30 Senate offices, and has particularly targeted 94 House Democrats -- from border states, moderates, Hispanics, pro-free trade, or on the Ways and Means Committee (many members fit more than one category).
NEW YORK -- Companies hoping to avoid Section 301 tariffs by a shift in origin should research CBP rulings first, United States Fashion Industry Association customs counsel John Pellegrini said. And if the product they are importing is even a little different from what's in a ruling, ask for a new ruling. "It's a time to play conservative," said Pellegrini, who was speaking at the Nov. 7 USFIA Trade and Transportation conference.
NEW YORK -- While CBP recently issued multiple withhold release orders for goods the agency believes were produced with forced labor (see 1910010017 and 1902040017 and 1805210028), ICE is also working to increased enforcement of forced labor laws. The enforcement effort is not going to stop with civil penalties, warned Kenneth Kennedy, senior policy advisor for forced labor programs at the Homeland Security Investigations division at ICE. "We are teeing up criminal investigations within the next year, or two years," he said, and U.S. business officials will the targets.
The World Trade Organization cannot negotiate trade liberalization, and trade distorting agricultural subsidies are getting worse, not better, said Aluisio de Lima-Campos, chairman of the ABCI Institute, the Portuguese acronym for Brazilian International Trade Scholars. He was leading a panel Nov. 5 at American University, the end of a daylong trade symposium co-sponsored by ABCI.
NEW YORK -- A former WTO appellate body panelist criticized the administration's trade policies as chaotic and ineffective and former U.S. Trade Representative General Counsel Stephen Vaughn defended them, while a top WTO official tried to see the good in both arguments. They were all speaking on the state of world trade at an International Trade Symposium co-sponsored by Finastra and The Economist on Nov. 6.
NEW YORK -- Peter Navarro, widely seen as the most protectionist voice in the White House, gave a full-throated defense to what he called “Trumpian economics," as he said tariffs on steel created millions of dollars in investment in Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida and Colorado. "God bless tariffs in the fly-over states," he summed up. Navarro was speaking at an International Trade Symposium co-sponsored by Finastra and The Economist.
One panelist said it will take 20 years to know who are the winners and losers of today's tariffs and export restrictions. Another panelist said U.S. factory workers making washing machines and solar panels are clearly winning from the safeguards launched nearly two years ago, as are Vietnam and Mexico. Another panelist said Vietnam and Thailand, and Mexico to a much lesser degree. As moderator Lucas Queiroz Piers said, “It is a confusing moment." The Alston & Bird legal consultant was coordinating a panel called "U.S. Sanctions and Trade War: Winners and Losers," at an American University Washington School of Law International Trade Symposium on Nov. 5.
The Senate Finance Committee's attempt to give Congress more of a say on how Section 232 tariffs or quotas are applied is stalled again. Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, when he was speaking with reporters a week ago, said a markup of a bill along those lines could happen in November if he could find a compromise that could pass out of committee. The chairman's deadline for introducing a bill has slipped repeatedly through the year (see 1908070058 and 1906130033).
The U.S. and Brazil cannot achieve a traditional free trade agreement, because Brazil is a party to Mercosur, a regional customs union -- even if the long-term participation in Mercosur is in question. But Renata Vasconcellos, senior policy director Brazil-U.S. Business Council, said her group “fully supports" what she called a "non-traditional trade agreement." Vasconcellos was one of many panelists speaking at American University Nov. 5 at an International Trade Symposium focused on Brazilian issues. "I’m concerned about the closing of this window. Let’s take what we can get now," she said.