The Customs chapter in the U.S. Code, Title 19, will be reorganized by subject matter, not chronologically, the Office of Law Revision Counsel recently announced. Title 19 appeared in 1926, and has 30 chapters. “The new Title 19 -- renamed as Customs and International Trade -- will enable general and permanent laws related to customs and international trade to be better organized and maintained," the Office of Law Revision Counsel said on its website. "Using an act-centric organization framework, the structure of the new title reflects the structure of included acts where possible.”

The Senate on July 23 passed the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes an amendment that would increase oversight of exports of gun silencers. The amendment, proposed July 20 by Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., would require Congress to review and certify all proposed export licenses for silencers, mufflers and firearms sound suppressors before the sale can be completed under the license. The requirement would apply to exports to any “foreign nongovernmental person, group, or organization … regardless of the dollar value.” The amendment would also require the secretary of state to determine that the export does not pose a risk of being retransferred to terrorist groups or criminal organizations. The State Department recently relaxed its policy for exports of gun suppressors to handle those shipments similarly to other U.S. Munitions List controlled technologies (see 2007130014).

Michael Nemelka, the nominee for deputy U.S. trade representative, said that the first case under USMCA could begin in the fall, if consultations with Canada or Mexico fail. Nemelka, who currently works as a special adviser to the USTR, said that they are reviewing complaints this month. After that, staff will consult with the congressional committees of jurisdiction about which complaints would make the best cases. Then a consultation process would begin.

Three Republican lawmakers urged the White House to do more to sanction China-backed cyber attackers who steal U.S. intellectual property. In a July 20 letter, Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Texas; Greg Walden, R-Ore.; and Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., said Chinese hackers are more frequently targeting U.S. agencies to try to steal information and public health data related to COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.

House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Kevin Brady, R-Texas, one of the four players directing the shape of a USMCA technical corrections bill, said that the “language was a little different than the intent” when it came to the treatment of foreign-trade zones in USMCA's implementing bill. Brady and the leaders of the Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees see getting a technical corrections bill passed as “a high priority,” he said in a recent interview.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said during a conference call with reporters July 17 he doesn't know if the U.S. trade representative and Canada have resolved their differences over Canadian aluminum imports. The USTR has said that he was consulting with Canada about a surge of imports. Some news outlets reported three weeks ago that he would re-impose 10% tariffs on aluminum, but so far that has not happened (see 2006250048).

The Senate Finance Committee will consider the nomination of Michael Nemelka to be a deputy U.S. trade representative for investment, services, labor, environment, Africa, China and the Western Hemisphere at a hearing July 21. Nemelka is currently a special adviser to USTR Robert Lighthizer.

The House Appropriations Committee has approved a bill that would increase trade funding at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Bureau of Industry and Security and the International Trade Administration. The committee voted July 14, and now goes to the full House. The bill, which passed the committee only with Democrat votes, and so may not be tolerable to the Republicans who control the Senate, increases funding to BIS by $9.6 million, to $137.6 million. It increases funding to USTR by $1 million, to $55 million, and ups funding to the International Trade Administration by $21.4 million, to $542.4 million. Spending for CBP will be part of a Department of Homeland Security bill, and the amount has not been determined yet.

Fifty-two members of Congress, led by Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., and Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., asked U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to engage with Congress during the negotiations of a phase two agreement with Japan.

Rep. Rick Larsen, one of the chairpersons of the New Democrats' trade task force, told the Washington International Trade Association that he thinks the U.S. has not gotten any benefit out of the Trump administration's trade war. When asked by International Trade Today if a Joe Biden administration would roll back the Section 301 tariffs, even if China does not give concessions on industrial subsidies or state-owned enterprises, Larsen said, “I think the next administration needs to reset where we are, how we’re going to approach this.”