Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said Republicans on the committee will be more active in 2020 in backing the administration's call for significant World Trade Organization reforms. When asked by International Trade Today if he thinks the appellate body will be revived this year, he said he didn't know. Brady, who was speaking to reporters Jan. 8, said, “There's got to be some serious changes. That's crucial to the credibility of the WTO for the long term. This has been a long-standing concern, not just in the U.S. Because of that appellate body/dispute resolution system is so long, at times arbitrary, and oftentimes not enforced, it really undermines the rules-based trading system -- which I know we all want.”
CBP has assessed about $53 billion in duties under the major trade remedies started during the Trump administration as of Jan. 8, according to CBP's trade statistics page. That includes $42.8 billion in duties from the Section 301 tariffs on goods from China, and $177.8 billion in Section 301 tariffs on goods from the EU. CBP also has assessed about $6.6 billion under the Section 232 tariffs on steel and $1.9 billion under tariffs on aluminum. The Section 201 trade remedies on washing machines, washing machine parts and solar cells account for $1.4 billion in assessed tariffs. CBP's statistics account for refunds provided to importers, an agency spokesperson said.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he's been told it's going to take three or four days for six other Senate committees to clear the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement so that it can go to the floor for a vote. Whether it can come up the week of Jan. 21 will depend on whether the articles of impeachment have arrived by then, he noted.
For five months in 2018, it looked like Chinese injection molds were going to cost 25 percent more because of Section 301 tariffs, and the import volume from China in 2018 fell nearly 12 percent, to $385 million. Overall imports of injection molds -- which were valued at $1.8 billion in 2018 -- rose 5 percent that year.
Richard O'Neill was named partner at Neville Peterson, where he was previously an associate attorney, the law firm said in an emailed news release. O'Neill's work is focused on “all aspects of international trade and Customs law, including tariff classification, appraisement, country of origin and trade preference programs, Section 301 and Section 232 tariffs, Free Trade Agreements, export controls and trade remedies,” the firm said.
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said, after a phone call with President Donald Trump Dec. 20, that Brazil will not face tariffs instead of quotas on its steel exports to the United States. Trump had tweeted in early December that the change would come “immediately,” but no Federal Register notice ever put the tweet into action (see 1912020036). He had said at the time that currency devaluation in Brazil and Argentina was “very unfair” to farmers and manufacturers. Argentina and Brazil have taken commodity market share from the U.S. in China, after China imposed tariffs on U.S. products.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., the strongest free trade advocate in the Senate, said he doesn't know if Republicans will return to their traditional position as pro-free trade. In response to a question from the audience at the American Enterprise Institute Dec. 19, he said it depends on whether President Donald Trump is re-elected in 2020.
The House Ways and Means Committee, with near-unanimity, recommended the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement go to the floor. A vote on the replacement for NAFTA is expected on Dec. 19. For about three hours, Democrats and Republicans praised the rewrite of North America's free trade pact, though many Republicans complained that it took a year to get the opportunity to vote for it.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Dec. 2-8:
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Dec. 2-6 in case they were missed.